Robert M. Harvey, a 49-year-old registered sex offender, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for possession of child pornography. The sentence is the statutory maximum for this crime.
Court records show that on June 29, 2022, staff at Dismas Charities Inc., a residential reentry facility in St. Albans, discovered Harvey with a cell phone. He was not permitted to have a cell phone without his probation officer’s approval, and any device he possessed could be searched and seized.
A law enforcement investigation of the phone revealed images and videos containing child pornography. As part of his guilty plea, Harvey admitted that these files included depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
At the time of the offense, Harvey was under supervised release following his conviction for receipt of child pornography in United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on March 12, 2007. He had previously been sentenced to over 17 years in prison followed by lifetime supervised release for that offense. On August 17, 2022, he received an additional three-year prison term for violating conditions of supervised release.
Harvey also has a prior conviction from April 4, 2000, for possession of child pornography in federal court in the Southern District of West Virginia.
“When you steal a child’s safety, you forfeit your freedom,” said United States Attorney Moore Capito. “My office fought for the maximum penalty in this case. Anyone who targets a child will face the full force of our justice system. I strongly believe we have a duty to protect our children and the public demands no less. I am committed to pursuing child predators with every tool the law allows – there is no refuge, no excuse, and no mercy for those who prey on our children.”
United States Attorney Moore Capito announced the sentence and commended investigative work by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston imposed the sentence; Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Rada Herrald prosecuted the case.
The prosecution was part of Project Safe Childhood—a Department of Justice initiative led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and designed to address child sexual exploitation and abuse by coordinating federal, state, and local resources to apprehend offenders and assist victims. More information about Project Safe Childhood can be found at www.justice.gov/psc.
Further details about this case are available through PACER by searching Case No. 2:25-cr-69.
