Another U.S. man convicted of ordering child porn from PH

The U.S. Justice Department announced the conviction of Patrick Lawrence Wood of Silver Spring, Maryland for child sex abuse. REUTERS FILE

SILVER SPRING, Maryland – Patrick Lawrence Wood, 35, of Silver Spring, was convicted on charges of conspiracy to produce child pornography with co-conspirators in the Philippines, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday.

Wood admitted that he paid co-conspirators in the Philippines to procure images and videos of children under the age of 12 engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

“According to his guilty plea, Wood used a social media platform to solicit the production of child pornography and used various digital money transfer services to send payment to co-conspirators in exchange for images and videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, as requested by Wood.”

A search of Wood’s social media accounts and the seized electronic devices revealed that he communicated with three co-conspirators in the Philippines to procure images and videos of minors engaged in sexual conduct.

Wood routinely paid a co-conspirator for Images and videos of at least five minor male and female victims, all under the age of 12, engaging in sex.

During the four years prior to Wood’s arrest, he paid more than $40,000 to co-conspirators in the Philippines in exchange for the production of child pornography.

In addition, the investigation revealed that sexually explicit images and videos of at least eight minor male victims 14 to 17 years old were electronically sent to Wood at his request from locations in the United States during online chat sessions.

At least one of those minor victims was also paid by Wood, in the form of gift cards and new clothes, for producing sexually explicit images requested by Wood.

In addition to the images and videos of child pornography identified on Wood’s social media and cloud-based storage accounts, the forensic examination of the devices seized from Wood’s home revealed over 150 images and five videos of child pornography.

According to his plea agreement, upon his release from prison, Wood will be required to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

If the Court accepts the plea agreement, Wood will be sentenced to between 17 years and 23 years in federal prison.  U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel has scheduled sentencing for May 23, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.