Child Porn Plea On Deck For Navy Man Who Found Illicit Images On 4chan

A 4chan user who told federal agents that he downloaded child pornography from the notorious web site is scheduled this week to plead guilty to a felony charge of possessing illicit images of children, according to federal court records.

Collin Campbell, a Navy Machinist’s Mate, waived indictment earlier this month and consented to prosecutors filing a criminal information against him. Such a move typically signals that a defendant has agreed to enter a guilty plea.

Court records show that Campbell, pictured at left, is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in San Diego this Wednesday for a change of plea hearing. He previously entered a not guilty plea to the felony child porn count, which carries a maximum 20-year prison term.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) began probing Campbell after a fellow seaman aboard the USS Boxer, a warship homeported in San Diego, borrowed Campbell’s iPhone and discovered a folder with “between 10-20 images of child pornography.” Confronted by an investigator, Campbell said he had obtained the illicit images “from the website www.4chan.org,” according to a federal investigator.

A subsequent search of Campbell’s computer and other electronic media items turned up more than 100 other “images of suspected child pornography,” an NCIS agent reported.

Campbell’s lawyer, Holly Hanover, did not return a TSG call seeking comment about her client’s March 23 change of plea hearing.