A former federal employee from Maryland will serve eight years in prison for using the wireless network at the Library of Congress to download and view videos and images showing the sexual abuse of young children.
Gary Lee Peksa, 58, of Mechanicsville, pleaded guilty last December to the charge of receiving child pornography, and he was sentenced Wednesday, a U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Columbia news release said.
Following his prison term, Peksa will be on supervised release for 20 years. He is also required to pay $47,000 in restitution to the victims and register as a sex offender for at least 15 years.
Between October 2018 to July 2019, Peksa, who worked as a sheet metal mechanic for the Architect of the Capitol at the library, connected his cellphone to the public wireless network at the Library of Congress.
He accessed websites that had images and videos of child pornography while he was in the bathroom, his office and a breakroom, prosecutors said. He accessed similar materials at home, using his own laptop and Wi-Fi service.
The Library of Congress’ network security operations center notified investigators about web traffic associated with child pornography and sexual exploitation of children.
Capitol Police took Peksa’s laptop in July 2019 and found hundreds of images of young children being abused. He was arrested in October 2019.
