NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain — An international child pornography investigation helped Navy special agents catch a Rota-based U.S. sailor with thousands of images and videos on his personal computer.
Petty Officer 1st Class Martin L. Edgeworth, 40, pleaded guilty at a general court-martial last week to charges of receiving and possessing child pornography and indecent acts of fondling and photographing a minor’s genitalia, the Navy said.
Edgeworth, an aviation maintenance administrationman assigned to Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Two, admitted to committing the crimes on or before Aug. 27, 2002, in the Rota area.
The Navy sentenced Edgeworth to six years’ confinement and a dishonorable discharge, said Senior Chief Petty Officer Steven Galvan, a spokesman for Fleet Air Mediterranean command based in Naples, Italy. Edgeworth was about six months shy of his 20th year of service in the Navy.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service was tipped off to Edgeworth’s stash of child pornography on his hard drive by an international investigation into people who operated child pornography Web sites.
The investigation is ongoing and involves law enforcement agencies from across the globe, Galvan said.
Web site subscriber lists that turned up during the worldwide investigation identified Edgeworth as a customer.
In the last three years, the investigative service’s special agents have cracked down on those who download child pornography with their office computers.
Special software has enabled agents in Rota to track and find people surfing known child pornography sites.
Downloading child pornography is a felony.
