Sammamish Resident Faces Federal Child Pornography Charges

A construction foreman who rented a room in a Sammamish man's home has been charged in federal court with three counts of possessing, receipt of and distributing child pornography.

Following an investigation dating back to March, King County Sheriff's detectives served a search warrant Sept. 18 on the home where Brett J. Irving, 58, rented a room. After discovering pornographic images on his computer, authorities arrested him at a construction job site in Kirkland where he was a foreman.

Irving was one of three men who rented rooms from a Sammamish man and his 11-year-old daughter, according to charging documents.

Irving allegedly admitted viewing the child pornography, and told investigators that he had masturbated into a pair of underwear belonging to his landlord's daughter. The home owner told police that Irving one day called him to ask if he could take his daughter for a bike ride, and he said no.

Irving acknowledged communicating online with persons he believed to be underage, but denied ever acting out his sexual fantasies, which he told police he "wanted to stop, but didn't know how," according to the charging documents.

The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a report from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children at the end of March that a Photobucket/Tinypic.com account had been used to upload child pornography depicting girls under the age of 9, including one with a child in diapers with a plastic bag tied around her head with a rope and her genitalia exposed; it was not clear if the child was dead or made to appear dead in the photo.

Emily Langlie, Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, said there are a number of reasons why a case may be moved to Federal Court, including the possibility of closer supervision on federal probation.

Distribution and receipt of child pornography is punishable by a mandatory minimum five years in prison, and a maximum penalty of 20 years. Possession of child pornography is punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Seattlepi.com reports that Irving was initially released on $10,000 bond, but later rearrested and is being held on $250,000 bond, and so far more than 300 videos and 155 images have been recovered from his computer.

Irving has a detention hearing Friday, Sept. 28, at 11 a.m.

Langlie said that law enforcement is still reviewing the videos and images seized from Irving's computer, though no local victims have been identified at this point. None of the other computers in the home were found to have any child pornography downloaded or viewed on them.