WASHINGTON – A Virginia man was sentenced today to 15 years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release following his conviction at trial for producing child pornography.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia made the announcement.

Logan Roy McCauley, 25, of Hamilton, Virginia, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III for the Eastern District of Virginia. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, in 2016 and 2017, McCauley repeatedly went online and engaged in sexualized conversations with individuals who identified themselves as minors. Then, in November 2017, after meeting a 13-year-old online, McCauley drove to the minor’s residence in West Virginia, picked up the minor, and drove the minor back to his residence in Hamilton. Within hours of arriving, McCauley engaged in sexual intercourse with the minor for purposes of using a smartphone to record a portion of the sexual abuse. Soon after creating the video, McCauley sent an online message to another person admitting he had made the video that morning. The day after McCauley created the video, law enforcement went to McCauley’s residence in search of the minor. Both McCauley and the minor were present, and McCauley told law enforcement about the video, which was still on McCauley’s smartphone.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. Trial Attorney Gwendelynn Bills of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander Berrang and Jay Prabhu of the Eastern District of Virginia prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.