LAFAYETTE, La. – William Malone, 46, of Mobile, Alabama, was sentenced today after having been convicted by a jury in October 2021 on child exploitation charges, announced United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown. Chief United States District Judge S. Maurice Hicks, Jr. sentenced Malone to 160 years in prison, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. Malone was also ordered to pay restitution to the victim in the amount of $206,580.80.
Malone was charged on October 7, 2020, by a federal grand jury in Lafayette with five counts of production of child pornography, one count of use of a facility to cause a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, and one count of possession of child pornography.
Evidence presented at the trial in Lafayette in October 2021 showed that Malone lived in Mobile, Alabama and worked as the captain of a maritime vessel that traveled out of Abbeville in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. Law enforcement officers with the Mobile Police Department and Child Advocacy Center began an investigation after they received complaints that Malone had sexually abused a female under the age of 12 years old. The minor victim’s mother reported the allegations after learning from her daughter that Malone had been sexually abusing her.
Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted a forensic examination of the minor victim’s cell phone and found evidence that Malone had texted the minor victim and asked her to send him pictures and videos of herself naked and other sexually explicit images of herself. Agents also executed a search warrant onboard the vessel where Malone was working, for his laptop computer and cell phone. During a review of Malone’s laptop computer and cell phone, agents found the sexually explicit images that the minor victim had told law enforcement officers she sent to Malone at his request. Malone was subsequently arrested and charged.
“The crimes committed by this defendant are shameful,” said U.S. Attorney Brandon B. Brown. “This defendant took advantage of the minor victim in this case who looked up to and trusted him. Instead of respecting that trust she had in him, he tried to intimidate her into staying quiet about the things he was doing to her which were incomprehensible. He showed no remorse for the awful acts he did. But this minor victim had the courage to tell someone what he did to her and today, she stood victorious knowing that he will never hurt another victim in this way again. We will continue to fight for victims who are forever scarred by guilty defendants like this.”
This case was investigated by the FBI and Mobile, Alabama Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys J. Luke Walker and Craig R. Bordelon, II.
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