‘McPedo’ Man Sentenced to Prison Over Child Pornography, Sexual Exploitation

A 61-year-old Houston, Texas, resident nicknamed “McPedo” has been ordered to spend 108 months in federal prison due to multiple child pornography convictions.

David Craig pleaded guilty on May 24 to the distribution and possession of child pornography, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a press release.

U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen on Monday sentenced him to a total of nine years behind bars along with 10 years of supervised release following his incarceration, during which time he will have to be compliant with numerous requirements that are designed to restrict his access to children, as well as the internet.

Craig, who will remain in custody until he is transferred to a U.S Bureau of Prisons facility in the near future, will also be ordered to register as a sex offender. Restitution will be determined at a later date, prosecutors said.

The DOJ said that law enforcement officials became aware of Craig due to his presence on dark web chat sites that are “dedicated to child exploitation and advertising the distribution of child pornography.”

‘McPedo’ Moniker

Prosecutors said that when communicating or posting on those sites, Craig used the moniker “McPedo.”

After becoming aware of his presence on the dark web, FBI Houston officers downloaded several images of child pornography from an IP address leading them to Craig’s residence, where they later executed a search warrant.

During that search, officers seized multiple electronic devices including a laptop that contained child pornography of prepubescent minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct and the sexual assault and torture of infants and toddlers, police said.

In total, FBI agents, with the assistance of the agency’s Violent Crimes Against Children Unit in Washington, D.C., found over 18,000 images and over 4,000 videos of child pornography at Craig’s residence, they said.

The case was prosecuted as part of the DOJ’s Project Safe Childhood (PSC) nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 to combat the increasing number of cases relating to child sexual exploitation and abuse.

According to a report by the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in March, the nonprofit organization’s CyberTipline received 29.3 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2021, marking an increase of over over 35 percent from the year prior. That was also the most ever reports it received in one year.

The majority of the reports, approximately 99 percent, alleged suspected child pornography, according to NCMEC, which also noted an increase in the number of videos of child sexual abuse, which they said was due largely to advances in technology. The organization expects reports of such videos will continue to rise in the future.

Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report.