Former McConnell AFB staff sergeant headed to prison in child porn case, officials say

A former staff sergeant at McConnell Air Force Base was sentenced Wednesday to 17.5 years in prison for distributing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas said.

Bradley Wayne Wiley of Chico, California, was indicted in March 2022 while he worked at the air force base in Wichita. The 29-year-old had his first permanent assignment in the Air Force at McConnell. He started on Dec. 1, 2016, and worked up to being a staff sergeant as an aircraft fuels systems specialist, according to McConnell spokesperson John Van Winkle.

In August 2022, Wiley pleaded guilty in the case, federal court records show. He was discharged from the Air Force on Dec. 8, 2022.

Van Winkle said the delay in Wiley’s discharge was in letting the “court system run its course.”

Wiley was originally indicted on three counts: two counts of distribution of child pornography that happened on July 14, 2021, and Aug. 29, 2021, and possession of child pornography that happened on Nov. 8, 2021.

The plea agreement kept the Aug. 29, 2021, charge of distributing child pornography and dropped the other two. The charge says Wiley used WhatsApp to exchange child porn with another user.

“In these communications, the defendant sent images to the other user that included prepubescent children made to engage in sex acts,” the plea agreement says. “These communications and others, including the depictions of child pornography, were later found on his Samsung (Galaxy S21) ... smartphone following a search warrant for his residence and devices.”