Child Porn, Dark Web Sex Chat Gets Aspen Hill Man 20 Years

ASPEN HILL, MD — A Montgomery County man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the distribution of child pornography, prosecutors said. Kevin Heiting, 30, of Aspen Hill pleaded guilty in 2017, admitting that thousands of users connected to one of his laptops and downloaded pornographic files.

In May 2016, a search warrant executed at Heiting's residence in Silver Spring led to the seizure of five hard drives, two laptop computers, a tower computer, and a cellular telephone.

Analysis of one of the hard drives unearthed more than 17,913 video files and 405,071 image files, many of which depicted children, including infants and toddlers, engaged in sexually explicit conduct. A file sharing program found on Heiting's computer showed that he shared over 100,000 files between June 8, 2014 and January 6, 2015.

The same afternoon that the search warrant was executed, Hieting bought a new laptop computer, which he took with him on and August 2016 trip to Central America. During his travels, Heiting used the laptop to run a file sharing program and to conduct online chats with minors, authorities say.

When Heiting returned from Central America, the laptop was detained by customs officers and later examined. Investigators found that he had used it to communicate over the "dark web", using an encrypted web chat application, with a 14-year-old boy. Enticed and persuaded by Heiting, the victim sent Heiting images of himself engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

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On August 29, 2016, Heiting was indicted on federal child pornography charges and placed on pretrial release, with conditions which forbade him from possessing internet capable devices.

On Feb. 1, 2017, law enforcement agents searched Heiting's residence and recovered a laptop computer, two 5TB hard drives, and three USB thumb drives that had been hidden in an air purifier cabinet. A file sharing program and the encrypted deep web application that Heiting had previously used were found on the laptop.

As part of his plea agreement, Heiting will be required to register as a sex offender.

A hearing will be held in July 2018 to determine the amount of restitution to be paid to child pornography victims, prosecutors said.

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