July 25, 2012 - George McKee, 54, of Kingsland, Georgia was sentenced on July 19, 2012 by United States District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood to 10 years in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release, for distributing child pornography. McKee will also be required to register as a sex offender. At the conclusion of the sentencing, McKee was returned to the custody of the United States Marshal Service to serve his sentence.

According to the evidence presented at McKee's plea and sentencing hearings, in late 2009 McKee, who was employed by a security services contractor at Naval Submarine Base, Kings Bay, Georgia, engaged in sexually suggestive "chats" and distributed child pornography through an Internet website. Mckee continued to possess child pornography on his computer and other computer media in March 2011, when a search warrant was executed at his home.

United States Attorney Edward J. Tarver stated, "The distribution of images depicting the sexual abuse of innocent children is a heinous crime. This abuse continued every time the Defendant electronically transferred the despicable images to others. There is no higher priority within the Department of Justice than the protection of our Nation's children. There should be no doubt that the United States Attorney's Office will prosecute those who facilitate the violent sexual assault of children."

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims.

The case was the result of an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, NCIS and the Kingsland Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Greenwood prosecuted the case.