LOS ANGELES—An Antelope Valley landscaper who admitted that he used his camera phone to make videos while he molested a three-month-old relative was sentenced Tuesday afternoon to 250 months in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
Robert Dale Schrader, 34, of Littlerock, was sentenced by United States District Judge Gary A. Feess, who also ordered that Schrader, once released from prison, will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.
At his sentencing hearing, Schrader told the judge there was a connection between looking at online child pornography and his actually molesting children. Schrader described how viewing child pornography created for him a link between children and sexual desire, ultimately leading him to molest children and produce child pornography.
According to court documents, authorities began investigating Schrader early this year after he communicated via e-mail with an undercover law enforcement officer based in England. In those e-mails, Schrader sent sexually explicit images of an infant, and data embedded in those images led authorities to Schrader’s Littlerock home.
On January 29, investigators executed a federal search warrant at Schrader’s residence, where they rescued the baby boy who had been molested. Authorities discovered approximately 200 child pornography images and videos depicting the baby.
During the investigation, authorities uncovered evidence that Schrader also molested at least two other victims, a 12-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy. Schrader currently faces additional charges that have been filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Schrader “repeatedly sexually abused his three-month-old [relative],” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed with the court. “He found online communities of like-minded individuals and bragged to them about his exploits with children, sharing his photographic trophies with them in hopes of obtaining similar child pornography in exchange. In this way, defendant emboldened and encouraged other individuals to also molest children, and also produce child pornography.”
The case against Schrader is the result of an investigation by the Child Exploitation Investigations Group, a task force based in Long Beach and spearheaded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Other agencies actively involved in the group include the Los Angeles Police Department, the FBI and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS).
