Online Child Predator: Bruce Austin Watkins, 43, Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Offense

Bruce Austin Watkins, 43, of Westwood, California, pleaded guilty on Tuesday November 3rd 2013, to receipt of child pornography, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to court documents, law enforcement executed a search at Watkins’s residence on
May 6th, 2013. Two laptops and an external hard drive seized from Watkins contained 500 videos and 220 images of child pornography that had been collected by Watkins between January 21st, 2007 and April 29th, 2013. Among the files collected by Watkins were images showing the violent sexual molestation of children as young as toddlers !

At the time of the search, Watkins told law enforcement that he had been looking at child pornography online for 15 to 20 years.

Watkins is currently incarcerated at the Sacramento County Jail.

Judge Lawrence K. Karlton

Watkins is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton on February 25th, 2014. Watkins faces a maximum statutory penalty of not less than five years and up to 20 years in prison, a lifetime period of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

SOURCE: United States Attorneys Office for the Eastern District Of California