Former airman, repeat offender admit to child sexual abuse material possession
A former U.S. Airman and a repeat child sex offender both admitted to possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) involving minor victims in separate Project Safe Childhood cases in the Middle District of Georgia this week.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A former U.S. Airman and a repeat child sex offender both admitted to possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) involving minor victims in separate Project Safe Childhood cases in the Middle District of Georgia this week.
A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia says 35-year-old Kenneth Queen of Forsyth pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child sexual abuse material and one count of failure to register as a sex offender.
Queen faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count of possession of CSAM, a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for failing to register as a sex offender and a maximum lifetime of supervised release. He will also have to register as a sex offender for life upon his release from prison. His sentencing is scheduled for July.
29-year-old Justin Wayne Pallett of Warner Robins was sentenced to serve 210 months in prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release after he previously pleaded guilty to possession of child sexual abuse material. He will also have to register as a sex offender for life upon his release from prison.
The attorney’s office says that in 2008, Queen was convicted of sexual battery against a child under 16 and child molestation in Madison County, Georgia Superior Court. He was required to register as a sex offender for life, and did so upon relocating to Tennessee. He was living in Monroe County, Georgia in 2020 when authorities learned he was unlawfully tattooing children. He was found in possession of graphic child sexual abuse material he captured involving a young child. He had not registered himself as a sex offender in Monroe County.
According to Pallett’s plea agreement, the mother of a 13-year-old girl reported to law enforcement in 2020 that her daughter exchanged sexually explicit online communications with a 26-year-old man, who was later identified as Pallett, an active duty service member assigned to Robins Air Force Base.
A search warrant executed on Pallett’s Snapchat account revealed similar communications with several underage girls. Agents found 178 images and six videos of child sexual abuse material on Pallett’s electronic devices—a cell phone, tablet, laptop and PC—including 14 images found within the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) database, according to the attorney’s office.
The cases were brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, click here.
