Texan Gets 16 Years for Distributing Child Porn

Federal law enforcement authorities continue to crack down on internet sex predators, sentencing a second west Texas man to prison on child porn charges in less than one week.

Thirty-five year old Kelly Turner received 188 months, which is just shy of 16 years, in federal prison after Senior U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings sentenced the San Angelo resident for distributing child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas on June 9.

Days before, on June 5, Parker announced that the feds sentenced Amarillo resident James Crawley to 97 months, or eight years, for possession of child porn, Breitbart Texas reported.

Based on documents filed in July 2016, Turner distributed two images depicting a female minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In addition to the two images, Turner received and possessed hundreds of images and videos depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, which he intentionally sought out and found on the internet.

On August 1, the Criminal Investigation Division of the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office (TGCSO) obtained an arrest warrant, taking Turner into custody for Possession with Intent to Promote Child Pornography, a second degree felony. San Angelo LIVE! reported Turner admitted he viewed, downloaded, and possessed child pornography. Investigators seized more than 25 electronic storage devices and roughly a half dozen terabytes of images and videos of child pornography on those devices.

The San Angelo news outlet also reported that the TGCSO commented, at the time, in a statement: “Turner advised investigators that the electronic media seized…could contain over one million image files and thousands of video files depicting children younger than 18 years of age engaging in sexual conduct.”

In March 2017, Turner pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Shepherded by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims.

Homeland Security Investigation’s (HSI) Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators, led the investigation. Since the program’s launch in 2003, HSI arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In 2015, HSI special agents arrested nearly 2,400 alleged perpetrators, also identifying or rescuing more than 1,000 victims.

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