25 Years in Federal Prison

[Swat1]

On Wednesday (07/07/05), Lester Weber was sentenced to 25 years in Federal Prison for Manufacturing Child Pornography with the Intent to Import into the United States, Traveling in Interstate and/or Foreign Commerce to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct and the Transportation and Possession of Child Pornography. This is the investigation that I traveled to Nairobi, Kenya for back in January where another agent and I helped execute a Kenyan National Police (KNP) search warrant and interviewed the victims.


Federal judge gives Tigard man 25 years for making child porn
Lester Weber molested his wife's children in Kenya, then brought photos and video of the acts to the U.S.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
NOELLE CROMBIE

A 50-year-old Tigard man was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to 25 years in prison for making child pornography and attempting to import it into the United States.

Lester Christian Weber was arrested at his home in December by federal authorities as he was about to return to Africa. His arrest came after an informant alerted authorities that he had seen child pornography on Weber's computer.

The affidavit supporting the criminal complaint and search warrant against Weber remains sealed, but prosecutors said Weber molested multiple children during a period of five years. In 1996 or 1997, Weber moved to Kenya, married a woman and sexually abused her children, who were younger than 7.
He took still photographs and video of the acts and brought them to the United States.

Officials said Weber's wife participated in the abuse and is in custody in Kenya.

Before sentencing Weber to the mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years, U.S. District Judge Garr King called Weber's crimes "outrageous and egregious." King said he would consider imposing a life sentence if Weber's plea agreement with prosecutors did not permit him to revoke his guilty plea if he was sentenced to more than 25 years. King said he did not want to subject Weber's young victims to the possibility of testifying about what happened to them.

"I believe the public needs protection from Mr. Weber given the nature of his conduct," King said.

Weber's sentence was increased by 10 years because of prior sex abuse convictions. In 1986, he was convicted of third-degree rape and third-degree sodomy in Washington County.

Christopher Schatz, an assistant federal defender and Weber's lawyer, said his client managed to control his "illness" for 10 to 12 years and told the court that after Weber's arrest he offered an "immediate confession."
Weber made a brief statement to the court, saying he was "very remorseful."
"I think the thing that bothers me most is that I hurt the people I love the most," he said.

Noelle Crombie: 503-2767184; noellecrombie@news.oregonian.com

http://www.oregonlive.com/search/ind...an?lcps&coll=7

[0311Marine]

This liberal bull**** about it being an "illness" is just that bull****. Hopefully this worthless bastard wont survive his sentence.

[Nole795]

Great Job Swat...

Traveling in Interstate and/or Foreign Commerce to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct is a great statute, I'm glad to see it is being utilized with great results.

[Group9]

Good job. If he will only have the decency to kill himself before getting out, the world will be even better off.

[Valor55]

God Bless you and your co-workers. I know you have to view at least some of the **** he made and I think I'd vomit if I had to do that.

Sounds like a chicken**** prosecutor letting him withdraw the guilty plea as part of the deal. :fire:

[MetPC]

Top job Swat 1 - well done mate. Must be good to see him get a decent sentence (decent by UK standards at least!)

[Swat1]

The article is not real clear. Basically, the guilty plea says that if the Judge gives him more than 25 years, the defendant can backout of the plea and go to trial. It has nothing to do with the prosecutor withdrawing the plea. If that wasn't in the plea then he would surely have gone to trial because he was looking at possible life. If he would have gone to trial then we would have had to have the victims come here from Kenya and testify. Which is why we went with the plea deal.

He is currently 53 or 54 years old and will be 78/79ish when he gets out. He is not in the greatest health so his chances of surviving prison are so so.

I wish I could tell you about the case my squad worked this past week, but will have to wait til it goes public. Another doosy.

One more thing valy. Unfortunately we have to view the images that we charge. Basically, we view thousands upon thousands of images in any given month. You get used to it, like a homicide detective gets used to viewing dead bodies. Some of it, like the forced stuff still turns my stomach though.

Swat1*

[mxwelch]

Outstanding job!! Anti-pervert rep sent!!

[tomahawk134]

Swat1 great work

tomahawk134

[chewy]

The article is not real clear. Basically, the guilty plea says that if the Judge gives him more than 25 years, the defendant can backout of the plea and go to trial. It has nothing to do with the prosecutor withdrawing the plea. If that wasn't in the plea then he would surely have gone to trial because he was looking at possible life. If he would have gone to trial then we would have had to have the victims come here from Kenya and testify. Which is why we went with the plea deal.

He is currently 53 or 54 years old and will be 78/79ish when he gets out. He is not in the greatest health so his chances of surviving prison are so so.

I wish I could tell you about the case my squad worked this past week, but will have to wait til it goes public. Another doosy.

One more thing valy. Unfortunately we have to view the images that we charge. Basically, we view thousands upon thousands of images in any given month. You get used to it, like a homicide detective gets used to viewing dead bodies. Some of it, like the forced stuff still turns my stomach though.

Swat1*

Next time you get to go somewhere like that tell them you need a CBP Officer to go with and come and pick me up. :D