Sex offender sentenced to prison for distributing child sexual abuse material while on supervision for previous conviction

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - A Newport News man was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

According to court documents, on March 31, 2015, David Christopher Schaefer, 38, was convicted of possession of CSAM and was sentenced to over eight years in prison and a life term of supervised release. Among the conditions of supervision were a restriction to use only computers or cellular devices approved by the Probation Office. Schaefer was allowed to have a flip phone without access to the Internet and a laptop computer with installed monitoring.

Law enforcement notified Schaefer's probation officer that Schaefer was issued a summons on March 21, 2025, in the City of Newport News for texting and driving. Probation officers searched Schaefer's residence and located six unauthorized Internet-capable devices and three unreported storage drives. Among these were three smartphones, which Schaefer admitted to using to access, view, download, and exchange CSAM. On one of the phones, investigators found hundreds of images and videos of CSAM. Schaefer was attributed with over 25,000 CSAM images.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., investigated this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa R. McKeel prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney's Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District CourtLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link. for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACERLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link. by searching for Case No. 4:25-cr-51.