Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Choose Virginia Hernandez Covington has sentenced Eric Paul Jones (44, New Port Richey) to 30 years and 5 months in federal jail for manufacturing and possession of kid intercourse abuse materials. The courtroom additionally ordered Jones to forfeit the digital units used within the fee of the offense and entered an order of restitution to the victims within the quantity of $18,528, and an evaluation within the quantity of $18,000 to the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Youngster Pornography Sufferer Help Fund. Jones had pleaded responsible on October 13, 2022.
In response to courtroom paperwork, Jones belonged to an internet group devoted to discussing and buying and selling baby intercourse abuse materials. On April 19, 2021, Jones started speaking with an undercover FBI agent. Jones informed the secret agent that he had engaged in sexual exercise with a 10-year-old baby, to whom he had entry. Jones then despatched the secret agent sexually express movies and pictures he had produced of the kid sufferer, in addition to baby intercourse abuse materials he possessed of different victims.
A number of days later, on April 22, 2021, the FBI executed a search warrant for Jones’s residence, in addition to for the cellphone Jones had used to speak with the secret agent. A search of Jones’s cellphone revealed that he was in possession of greater than 100 baby intercourse abuse photographs and movies of younger kids engaged in sexually express conduct, a few of which included infants and toddlers subjected to bondage and sadomasochistic conduct. The FBI additionally discovered the identical photographs and movies that Jones had despatched to the secret agent on Jones’s cellphone. Jones later admitted to brokers that he had been producing baby intercourse abuse photographs of the kid sufferer for a number of years.
“Whereas it’s heartbreaking to be taught of one more baby sufferer of a sexual predator, it’s reassuring to be taught of the devoted work by particular brokers to be sure that predator spends a very long time in jail for his despicable crime,” stated FBI Tampa Division Particular Agent in Cost David Walker.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with help from the Metropolitan Police Division of the District of Columbia, the Pasco Sheriff’s Workplace, and the Tampa Police Division. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Legal professional Lisa M. Thelwell.
This case was introduced as a part of Challenge Protected Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in Could 2006 by the Division of Justice to fight the rising epidemic of kid sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Workplaces and the Prison Division’s Youngster Exploitation and Obscenity Part (CEOS), Challenge Protected Childhood marshals federal, state, and native sources to find, apprehend, and prosecute people who sexually exploit kids, and to determine and rescue victims. For extra details about Challenge Protected Childhood, please go to www.justice.gov/psc.
