Wilmington man sentenced for crimes involving child porn

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A Wilmington man was sentenced to more than eight years for crimes involving child pornography.

In federal court on Thursday, the man was also sentenced to a five-year term of supervised release and will be required to register as a sex offender.

According to court documents, William Gene Kaleb Koch, 45, used an online conferencing and screen sharing application (“Application A”) to receive and share child pornography with other users in a virtual “room.”

An undercover agent with Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) was able to gain access to the room and observed the user “NC Pig,” who was later identified as Koch, sharing child pornography and sexual exploitation material and engaging in chats with other users about the sexual exploitation of minors on at least 12 separate occasions.

Investigators tracked the NC Pig user to Koch’s home in Wilmington and obtained a federal search warrant that was executed by HSI agents and the Wilmington Police Department on August 9, 2018.

Koch admitted to using Application A, as well as receiving and possessing child pornography to police. Later forensic review of Koch’s electronic devices revealed hundreds of videos and still images of child pornography (total image equivalent exceeding 14,000 images), the majority of which depicted children under 12 years of age, and some of which depicted infants and portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence.

This case is part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative.