KNOXVILLE-Tenn.– On February 10, 2022, Eugene Charles McGrath, 55, of Knoxville, was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 300 months for producing child pornography by the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. 

As part of the plea agreement filed with the court, McGrath pled guilty to an indictment charging him with one count of using a minor to produce depictions of sexually explicit conduct in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a) and (e).  Upon his release from prison McGrath will be on supervised release for life.  McGrath will also be required to register with state sex offender registries and comply with special sex offender conditions during his supervised release.

According to documents filed in Court, from 2006 through 2020, defendant produced child pornography of at least two minors under 10 years of age.  One of the videos that McGrath produced has been distributed internationally.  In addition to the child pornography images he produced, McGrath was also in possession of 103 images and 11 videos of other child pornography.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Knoxville Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children Unit.

Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Kolman represented the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006, by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about PSC, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.