PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A former U.S. Navy sailor who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography has been sentenced to 33 months in prison.
Robert Houston Birchett, a Portsmouth resident, will also be on supervised released for 15 years upon release.
Birchett pleaded guilty on June 15, 2020, after investigators say he possessed images and videos of child porn and filed Craigslist ads looking for a “young” woman.
When Birchett filed personal ads on Craigslist looking for a “young” sexual partner in January 2018, it was flagged as suspected solicitation of a minor and the investigation continued for over a year.
He admitted to using search terms commonly used for child pornography, and authorities found two computers and two hard drives with 3,892 thumbnail images, 83 images, and one video of suspected child pornography in system backups from 2017.
Birchett had served on the USS George H.W. Bush
