FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) — A Springdale man has admitted to downloading nearly 15,000 files of child pornography on the so-called dark web as part of a federal plea deal.
James Daosaeng, 24, pleaded guilty Thursday (March 29) in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville to one count of receiving child pornography.
As part of Daosaeng’s plea agreement, the government will move to dismiss his other charges at sentencing. Daoseang was indicted in January on four counts of receiving child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
Daosaeng was arrested in July 2017 after agents with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force discovered he was uploading child pornography from his home on Southfork Street.
Task force agents found 13,791 images and 947 videos of child pornography spread across three devices, including a Nintendo DS SD Card. The ages of the children in the files ranged from infant to late teens.
Daosaeng returned home to find the agents searching his house. He told them he’d been downloading and sharing child pornography through the “dark web,” a catch-all term describing an “encrypted network … and other web services that for one reason or another cannot be indexed by conventional search engines,” according to Techworm.
While “the hidden nature of the dark web can make it difficult to know exactly what goes on there,” not all of the activity is nefarious, according to Techworm.
Daosaeng was being held Friday (March 30) at the Washington County Detention Center without bond.
Daosaeng faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing hearing hasn’t been set.
The U.S. attorney’s office wasn’t immediately available for comment.
