The man who post a bulletin board asking whether any parent was willing to share his daughter with "a horny old man." was caught. Sick and pathetic.
Sex with 10- and 12-year-old children during on-line undercover operation.

Washington, D.C. - A 64-year-old Arkansas man, Aubrey Lynn Shepard, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by the Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina to a term of 30 years of imprisonment following his May 2007 guilty plea to charges of Attempted Enticement of a Minor and Transportation of Child Pornography, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced.

Shepard was arrested on April 4, 2007, in the District of Columbia after driving from Benton, Arkansas, to engage in sex with a 10-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl. His arrest followed a several month long investigation of Shepard by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the FBI that began when Shepard posted a message on an Internet bulletin board asking whether any parent was willing to share his daughter with "a horny old man." MPD Detective Timothy Palchak, working in an undercover capacity, noticed the message and initiated contact on line with Shepard. Palchak, posing as a pedophile, stated that he had access to a 10-year-old and engaged in sex with the child.

Over the course of several weeks, Shepard discussed with Palchak his wish to meet the fictitious child and to engage in sex acts with her, which Shepard intended to video tape. When Palchak indicated that he was the father of a 12-year-old who had never had sex, Shepard suggested rendering that child unconscious with sleeping pills and engaging in sex with her also.

During the on-line conversations, Shepard sent thousands of images of child pornography to Palchak, including images of very young children being raped and sodomized. Over 450 known victims of child pornography were identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the material Shepard sent to the District of Columbia via the Internet.

Shepard arranged with Palchak to travel from Arkansas to the District of Columbia in order to engage in sex with the two fictitious children. He reserved a room at a motel in Northeast Washington where he intended to meet the detective and the children. Shepard indicated that he would bring a camera to videotape the sexual activity, child pornography to show the children, as well as the sleeping pills and stuffed animals as gifts for them. He was placed under arrest by FBI agents and MPD officers when he arrived at the hotel. A video camera, a large amount of child pornography, and stuffed animals were recovered in a search of his car.

Immediately after Shepard's arrest in the District, FBI agents executed a search warrant on his residence in Arkansas. Two computers and other evidence related to the investigation were seized during the search.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood and the Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney's Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor praised the outstanding work of MPD Detectives Timothy Palchak, Miguel Miranda, Jonathan Andrews Sgt. Morani Hines and FBI Special Agents Jill Blackman, Scott Schelbe, and Chad Gallagher. In addition, he thanked FBI agents of the Little Rock, Arkansas Field Office, and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Little Rock for their assistance, and praised the work of legal assistant Phaylyn Hunt for her support in the investigation. Finally, he commended former Assistant U.S. Attorney Donnell Turner and Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Stewart, who prosecuted the case