Child Pornography Charges: Silver Spring Man Sentenced To 17 Years

SILVER SPRING, MD — A Silver Spring man was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to child pornography charges. He will have to register as a sex offender when he is released, authorities said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Maryland said that Patrick Lawrence Wood, 35, paid "co-conspirators" in the Philippines over $40,000 to make videos sexually abusing children under the age of 12. Wood received videos and images of at least five children, authorities said.

Wood used a social media platform to make the requests and used digital money transfer services to pay for them, authorities said. He also received videos and photos of at least eight teenagers in the United States, and paid at least one of them, authorities said. The news release did not say who sent those images and videos.

When investigators searched Wood's computer they found screenshots of a ticket to Manila, Philippines, but said they determined that Wood did not actually go.

The case against Wood was brought through Project Safe Childhood, which is a Department of Justice initiative that aims to find, arrest, and prosecute people who sexually exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.