January 20, 2005
Press Release

Man guilty in child-porn case

Chesterfield resident to serve three years; America Online provided initial information.

A tip from American Online resulted yesterday in a three-year prison term for a Chesterfield County man accused of possessing and distributing child pornography. Douglas A. Schrader, 26, pleaded guilty to four child-pornography counts and to one count each of taking indecent liberties with a minor and using an electronic system to solicit a minor to produce sexually explicit material. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with seven years suspended, on the indecent-liberties charge and had prison terms suspended for life on the other five charges.

Chesterfield police said they seized hundreds of images from Schrader's computer and compact discs after obtaining a search warrant for his home. They said some of the images of children younger than 10 are among the most graphic that they have seen. An image of a 14-year-old Hanover County girl was the basis of the indecent-liberties and solicitation charges.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney David Rigler said Schrader had encouraged the girl to take a photo of herself and send it to him over his computer. He had scheduled a meeting with the girl for the day after police searched his home and arrested him in July. The search warrant was based on information provided through Operation Blue Thunder, an Internet-crimes task force operated by the Bedford County Sheriff's Office.

American Online works closely with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on child pornography and alerted the center that what appeared to be a child-porn image had been sent over the Internet from Schrader's computer. The center alerted the task force, which is the repository in Virginia and West Virginia for information about Internet traffic in child pornography. Chesterfield Detective Keith Applegate said the legwork by the task force shortened the work of county investigators and resulted in the prompt arrest of Schrader.

Contact Alan Cooper at (804) 649-6649 or acooper@timesdispatch.com