According to a media advisory from the U.S. Department, Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town of the Northern District of Alabama have announced that a  54-year-old Muscle Shoals, Alabama man was arrested yesterday on federal charges for allegedly producing child pornography.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s affidavit, between Aug. 1, 1997, and Oct. 15, 1998, Charles Mark McCormack used a minor, born around 1992, to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography. The charges say McCormack videoed the child urinating in a bathroom in his residence.

As the press release noted, “The charges contained in the complaint are only allegations.  The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s media advisory,t he U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations is investigating this case with the cooperation of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.  Trial Attorney William M. Grady of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel J. Fortune of the Northern District of Alabama are prosecuting the case.

This investigation is a part of Project Safe Childhood, which is a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. The effort is led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to 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 justice.gov/psc