Source: United States Department of Justice News
PITTSBURGH – A former resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to 25 years’ incarceration and lifetime supervised release on his conviction for four counts related to the sexual exploitation of minors, United States Attorney Cindy K. Chung announced today.
Senior United States District Judge Joy Flowers Conti imposed the sentence on Wayne Edward McNutt, age 58.
According to information presented to the court, from Feb. 25, 2021 until July 26, 2021, McNutt communicated with an individual whom he believed had a child available for sexual activity. In reality, McNutt was communicating with law enforcement agents acting in an undercover capacity to investigate the online sexual exploitation of children. During the communications, McNutt made plans to meet the purported child for sex and solicited advice from the child’s purported guardian about how to make the child trust him and feel comfortable during McNutt’s intended sexual abuse of the child. On two occasions, McNutt sent to the undercover agent images and a video depicting child sexual abuse. Ultimately, McNutt sent money for the purported child and the child’s guardian to travel from another state to Pittsburgh, where McNutt had booked a hotel room for all of them. McNutt was arrested by law enforcement on July 26, 2021, when he arrived to meet the purported child at the hotel that he had reserved. McNutt also possessed a cell phone that contained additional videos of minors, including prepubescent minors, engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
At the time of his arrest, McNutt was on Pennsylvania state probation for a 2012 conviction for the aggravated indecent assault of a child. In imposing sentence, Judge Conti stated that lifetime supervised release was necessary to protect the community from McNutt’s very serious and repetitive criminal conduct.
Assistant United States Attorney Heidi M. Grogan prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.
United States Attorney Chung commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI Pittsburgh Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, the FBI Albany Mid-State Child Exploitation Task Force, and the FBI Albany Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force for conducting the investigation that led to the prosecution of McNutt.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, 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, Project Safe Childhood 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 Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.