Feds Bust West Point Cadet, 23, Who Sought "Hardcore" Child Pornography

A West Point cadet was charged today with receiving or distributing child pornography after federal agents discovered that he swapped illicit videos with online contacts, one of whom he allegedly asked in an e-mail, “Do you trade videos of boys? I love man boy hardcore.”

During a court-ordered search yesterday of his barracks, Ricky Patrick Hester, 23, confessed to using an e-mail account ([email protected]) to send and receive videos showing children engaged in sexual acts, according to a felony complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

Seen above, Hester, an Indiana native, also reportedly copped to maintaining a Dropbox account holding “20 videos and 100 digital images containing child pornography.” If convicted of the felony charge, Hester faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison (and a max of 20 years in custody).

The investigation of Hester was an outgrowth of an earlier probe targeting an e-mail address that had been used to “express an interest in trading” child porn. An examination of that account by federal agents revealed incriminating correspondence sent from Hester’s Yahoo account.