A former acting director of cyber security at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was convicted of child porn charges on Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced.

Timothy DeFoggi, 56, was convicted by a federal jury in Nebraska of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, conspiracy to advertise and distribute child pornography and accessing a computer with intent to view child pornography in connection with his membership in a child pornography website, the Department of Justice said.

The website, prosecutors say, was PedoBook, a secret pornography forum "where people talked about sexual fantasies and exchanged photos and videos of child porn in 2012," The Omaha World-Herald's Alissa Skelton reports. She adds that DeFoggi was busted in April 2013 when authorities dropped in to serve a search warrant and DeFoggi was in the midst of downloading pornography.

The trial lasted just four days.

The DOJ release detailed some extraordinary charges against the man, including that he "expressed an interest in the violent rape and murder of children."

According to evidence presented at trial, DeFoggi registered as a website member on March 2, 2012, and maintained his membership and activity until Dec. 8, 2012, when the website was taken down by the FBI. Through the website, DeFoggi accessed child pornography, solicited child pornography from other members, and exchanged private messages with other members where he expressed an interest in the violent rape and murder of children. DeFoggi even suggested meeting one member in person to fulfill their mutual fantasies to violently rape and murder children.

According to documents posted online, DeFoggi was once the head of cybersecurity for the Indian Health Service (IHS), a federal health program for Native Americans. In that role, DeFoggi's team was "responsible for ensuring the security of IHS information systems and resources, as well as the integrity and confidentiality of protected health information and personally identifiable information."

An organizational chart posted online in 2014 shows that DeFoggi reported to HHS Chief Information Security Officer Kevin Charest and was listed as head of OS IT Security Operations.

Image: HHS

As recently as 2013 he served as an adviser to the FCC. He was assigned to a group that was tasked with providing the chairman with recommendations regarding "best practices and actions the Commission can take to ensure the security, reliability and interoperability of communications systems," according to an FCC document viewed by Mashable.

“This site was designed to be safe,” U.S. Department of Justice Attorney Keith Becker said on Friday of the website membership that sent DeFoggi to prison, according to The Omaha World-Herald.

“Not for the children on this site, but for the users who exploited on this site. The users talked about operating so they wouldn’t be detected,” Becker said.

Federal authorities shut down the site earlier this year. DeFoggi is the sixth person to be convicted due to his membership.