According to the FBI website Kenneth Wayne Hugo, age 37, of El Paso County, Colorado, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Blackburn to serve 360 months (30 years) in federal prison for the sexual exploitation of children, United States Attorney John Walsh and FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ravenelle announced.
Following his prison term, Hugo will spend the rest of his life on supervised release. The defendant appeared at the hearing in custody, and was remanded by Judge Blackburn at the hearing’s conclusion.
Hugo was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on August 6, 2013. He pled guilty before Judge Blackburn on January 22, 2014. He was sentenced on September 4, 2014.
According to the stipulated facts contained in his plea agreement, this investigation began as an offshoot of an Australian investigation into citizens distributing child pornography. This investigation led authorities to Texas. As a result of a search warrant executed in Texas, federal authorities found a computer that contained evidence of e-mails being exchanged with an individual in Colorado Springs, Colorado, namely, Kenneth Hugo. On January 23, 2013, the FBI and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at Hugo’s residence. During the execution of the search warrant agents and deputies found images depicting prepubescent and toddler aged females being sexually penetrated. It was determined that Hugo started his collection by utilizing a Russian-based image-sharing website to download child pornography images and videos. He also used this website to meet online other like-minded individuals. Hugo also posted images on the site for others to download.
During the subsequent investigation authorities learned that the defendant had inappropriate sexual contact with prepubescent minor females. When minor children slept over at his house during the summer of 2012, Hugo would wait until the minor girls were asleep, sneak into their room, pull down the covers, pajamas and panties, and fondle them, all the while taking pictures using his cell phone camera. Forensic analysis of the items seized during the search warrant revealed 1,600 images of child pornography on the desktop computer and over 4,200 images on the laptop computer. The laptop also contained all the images Hugo had taken using his cell phone of the girls during the sleepovers. An external hard drive contained over 4,000 images of child pornography and a thumb drive contained approximately 290 such images.
Hugo was arrested on January 23, 2013 by state authorities for the sexual assault of three minor girls. Hugo plead guilty to the sexual assault of those girls in state court and was sentenced in November 2013 to an indeterminate term of imprisonment in the Colorado Department of Corrections of four years to life.
“The defendant in this case not only collected horrific photos and videos of toddlers and other children being sexually abused, the investigation also determined that Hugo himself was involved in the horrific conduct,” said U.S. Attorney John Walsh. “The lengthy sentence imposed by the Court is a measure of the damage this man has done, and the danger he poses to society and children.”
Combating the exploitation and victimization of children is one of the FBI’s top priorities,” said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ravenelle. “The 30 year prison sentence of Kenneth Hugo reflects the consequences of the FBI’s commitment to identifying, arresting and referring for prosecution those who prey on our children. Working in conjunction with state and local authorities, law enforcement has removed another child predator from our community and curtailed the abusive actions of an individual actively preying on children.”
This case was investigated by the FBI and the Colorado Springs Police Department.
The defendant was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Valeria Spencer.
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 Attorneys’ 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 http://www.justice.gov/psc/ For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click on the tab “resources.”
Grim Statistics
- One in three girls and one in six boys are sexually abused before the age of 18
- 1 in 6 boys is sexually abused before the age of 18.
- One in 5 youth received a sexual approach or solicitation over the Internet in the past year.
- The average age for first abuse is 9.9 years for boys and 9.6 years for girls.
- Abuse typically occurs within a long-term, on-going relationship between the offender and victim, escalates over time and lasts an average of four years.
- Many child sexual abuse victims never disclose their abuse to anyone. Less than 10% of child sexual abuse is reported to the police.
- Children are most vulnerable between ages 8 -12.
- 29% of all forcible rapes occurred when the victim was under 11 years old.
- 15% of sexual assault and rape victims are under the age of 12.
- 44% of sexual assault and rape victims are under age 18.
- Children with disabilities are 4 to 10 times more vulnerable to sexual abuse than their non-disabled peers.
- Nearly 30% of child sexual assault victims identified by child protective service agencies were between 4 and 7 years of age.
- 93% of juvenile sexual assault victims know their attacker, 34.2% of attackers were family members and 58.7% were acquaintances and only 7% of the perpetrators were strangers to the victim.
- Nearly 50 % of all the victims of forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, and forcible fondling are children under the age of 12.
- 60% of girls who had sex before the age of 15 were coerced by males averaging 6 years their senior.
- Women who experienced sexual abuse as a child are 2 to 3 times more likely to be sexually assaulted later in life.
- Like rape, child molestation is one of the most underreported crimes: only 1-10% are ever disclosed. Source: FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin.
- Fabricated sexual abuse reports constitute only 1% to 4% of all reported cases. Of these reports 75% are reported by adults. Children fabricate sexual abuse less than 1% of the time.
- IT IS ESTIMATED THAT THERE ARE 60 MILLION SURVIVORS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE IN AMERICA TODAY.