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Michigan man sentenced for buying child pornography while stationed at Guantanamo Bay
A 38-year-old Michigan man has been sentenced to prison after admitting to purchasing collections of child pornography while employed at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay.
According to court documents, David Mark Bartels of White Cloud pleaded guilty in January 2025 to one count of possession of child pornography by a person employed by the armed forces outside of the U.S.
Bartels was sentenced Friday to five years in prison and ordered to pay $63,000 in restitution.
Federal prosecutors say a forensic review of a five-terabyte hard drive taken from Bartels revealed tens of thousands of child pornography files in a folder called "\NSFW\Nope\Dont open\You were Warned\Deeper\." The files allegedly included 1,500 videos and images of 285 known victims.
Bartels, officials allege, used the Tor browser, which allowed him to browse the dark web and access child pornography.
NCIS Resident Agency Guantanamo Bay investigated the case, which was prosecuted as part of the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide effort launched in May 2006 to combat abuse and child sexual exploitation.
