DOJ Press Release: HOGSETT ANNOUNCES CHARGES AGAINST FOUR MEN IN INTERNATIONAL CHILD EXPLOITATION CONSPIRACY

Department of Justice

United States Attorney Joseph H. Hogsett

Southern District of Indiana

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: TIM HORTY

Friday, June 28, 2013

(317) 229-2409; Cell (317) 716-4250

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ins/      tim.horty@usdoj.gov

HOGSETT ANNOUNCES CHARGES AGAINST FOUR MEN IN INTERNATIONAL CHILD EXPLOITATION CONSPIRACY

Pair traveled worldwide to orchestrate abuse, videos of which were trafficked in Indiana

PRESS RELEASE

INDIANAPOLIS – Joseph H. Hogsett, the United States Attorney, announced this

afternoon the conviction of two men who sexually exploited a young boy in a scheme that

stretched across three continents. Court documents unsealed today reveal that Mark J. Newton,

age 42, an American citizen living in Australia, and Peter Truong, age 36, an Australian citizen,

also living in Australia, orchestrated the abuse ofthe young child at the hands of a number of

other men around the world. In addition, charges unsealed today allege that John R. Powell, age

41, a resident of Florida, and Jason Bettuo, age 36, a resident of Illinois, were also participants in

this scheme. In a hearing this afternoon before U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker, Newton

was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

“For more than one year and across three continents, these men submitted this young

child to some of the most heinous acts of exploitation that this Office has ever seen,” Hogsett

said. “Thanks to the tireless work of our Project Safe Childhood team, these men will all face

justice here in Indiana, and that young child’s nightmare has thankfully been brought to an end.”

Newton and Truong, who were living in Queensland, Australia, were the legal parents of

a boy (“Victim 1”) who was five to six years of age during the events described in the federal

charges. Between 2010 and 2011, Newton and Truong traveled to the United States, and

elsewhere, with Victim 1 to meet with other men, allegedly including Powell and Bettuo,so that

these persons could use high definition digital cameras to record the sexual abuse of Victim 1.

These instances allegedly included a September 2010 meeting with Powell, in which

Newton and Truong allowed him to engage in sexual conduct with Victim 1 and produce child

pornography of the encounter. In April 2011, they traveled with Victim 1 to San Francisco, at

which time Powell and Bettuo allegedly engaged in sexual conduct with the child and produced

additional child pornography.

On one occasion, Newton and Truong allowed a man, allegedly Powell, to travel to

Australia and visit them at their home. During this visit, Powell was given access to Victim 1 and

would allegedly sexually exploit the child and create child pornography. Court documents also

indicate that Newton and Truong traveled to France for a “vacation” on at least one occasion,

inviting Powell to meet with them who then engaged in sexual conduct with Victim 1, which was

again video recorded. The resulting child pornography was then allegedly brought back to the

United States.

Over the course of this scheme to sexually exploit Victim 1, Newton and Truong were

also found to have engaged in a conspiracy to transport the child pornography produced during

these encounters to individuals around the world, including individuals in Anderson, Indiana,

and Arlington, Virginia. Powell is alleged to have participated in this scheme. It was this

trafficking of materials that alerted United States Postal Inspectors and Indiana investigators to

the case, launching the two year investigation of Newton, Truong, Powell, Bettuo, and others.

This case is the result of the investigative efforts of the United States Postal Inspection

Service to target individuals who use the US Mail and the Internet to sexually exploit children.

They were assisted locally by the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and

received significant help from the Queensland Police Service, Task Force Argos in Australia.

Over the last year, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has completed enforcement actions on over

125 subjects who are sex offenders, teachers, youth sport league volunteers, firefighters, police

officers, and doctors. These efforts have led to the identification of over 131 previously unknown

child victims of sexual exploitation.

“With today’s announcement, we are exposing one of the most heinous crimes involving

children; the transportation of a child around the world for the sole purpose of sexually

exploiting them,” Deputy Chief Inspector Shawn Tiller stated. “This case illustrates the Postal

Inspection Service’s dedication to investigating and identifying those individuals who use the

U.S. Mail and the Internet to sexually exploit children.”

According to Senior Litigation Counsel Steven D. DeBrota and Assistant U.S. Attorney

A. Brant Cook, who along with the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity

Section Trial Attorney Michael Grant are prosecuting these cases for the government, Newton

was also sentenced to lifetime supervised release and was ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution

to Victim 1.

Prosecutors said that defendant Truong has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing on

charges of conspiring to sexually exploit a child, as well as charges of possessing child

pornography. Bettuo has filed a petition in federal court expressing his intent to enter a plea of

guilty, and Powell’s case is still pending as he awaits trial.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to

combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by

the Department of Justice. Hogsett pointed out that in the last Project Safe Childhood reporting

year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted 52 defendants in Indiana, an increase of 37% over

the prior year, and 49 defendants were convicted and sentenced. These are all-time records for

the Office, which maintained a 100% conviction rate for PSC cases.

The greatest measure of the PSC program’s impact, however, is the identification and

rescue of child victims of sexual exploitation and abuse. Over the last year, the U.S. Attorney’s

Office successfully identified more than 120 child victims, including minors in Indiana,

numerous places in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, and other countries around the

world.

Led nationally by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child

Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local

resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the

Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe

Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

An Information or Indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is

presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond

a reasonable doubt.

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