Tulsa Man Pleads Guilty To Trying To Download Child Porn While In Iraq

A former government contractor employee and Tulsa resident pleaded guilty Thursday in Tulsa federal court to a child exploitation charge under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act.

Keith Strimple, 57, entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell to one count of attempted possession of a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

According to court documents, Strimple worked as a contractor between April and September 2007, at Camp Fallujah, a U.S. military facility in Iraq.

Strimple admitted that he searched for videos of minors that he believed to be as young as 12 years old engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and downloaded the images using the contractor's computer system.

The case was investigated by the NCIS and the U.S. Attorney's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section's High Tech Investigations Unit, with assistance from the FBI in Tulsa.

Strimple faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. His sentencing date is April 11, 2012.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.