PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A resident of Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to 20 years of prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution of $15,000 to his victims for his conviction on charges related to the sexual exploitation of minors, United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today.United States District Judge William S. Stickman IV imposed the sentence on Robert Bookshar, 49, on August 24, 2026. Bookshar pleaded guilty in March 2026 to two counts of production and attempted production of material depicting the sexual exploitation of children.According to information presented to the Court, from in and around September 2021 through in and around June 2023, Bookshar communicated with an online criminal organization offering child sexual abuse material for sale through a social media app. Specifically, on August 23, 2022, and May 12, 2022, Bookshar purchased live video calls with two different female minors, during which the defendant requested that each minor “get naked” and engage in sexual conduct. Bookshar secretly recorded the video calls and saved them to a folder labeled under each girl’s name on an external hard drive. Bookshar paid for these calls and other child sexual abuse material with gift cards and various mobile payment apps.Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Stickman condemned the defendant’s criminal conduct and expressed significant concern regarding Bookshar’s claim that he did not realize that he was harming real girls.Assistant United States Attorney Heidi M. Grogan prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.United States Attorney Rivetti commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes the Allegheny County Police Department, and the Tampa (Florida) and Colorado Springs (Colorado) police departments for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Bookshar.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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice