Jacksonville Man Pleaded Guilty to Receiving Child Abuse Videos

Richard Daniel Lord, 58, of Jacksonville, Florida, has pleaded guilty to receiving child sexual abuse videos over the internet, admitting he spent years hunting for illegal material online while fixated on children as young as 10 years old.

According to federal prosecutors, Lord admitted during an FBI interview that he used his cell phones to constantly search for, download, and view child pornography, describing his behavior as uncontrollable. He was arrested on September 30, 2016, when agents executed a federal search warrant at his Jacksonville residence and found a video he had downloaded just two weeks earlier—depicting the sexual abuse of a prepubescent minor.

Forensic examination of Lord’s phone confirmed the presence of the illicit video, which formed the core of the charges against him. He has remained in federal custody since his arrest and now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years, up to 20 years in federal prison, along with a potential life term of supervised release following incarceration.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown in the Middle District of Florida. Authorities emphasized the disturbing nature of Lord’s admitted preferences and the calculated effort he made to access exploitative content involving young children.

This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combat the rising tide of child sexual exploitation. The program coordinates federal, state, and local efforts to identify offenders, rescue victims, and dismantle networks that distribute abusive material across the internet.

For more information on Project Safe Childhood and online safety resources, visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. The Department of Justice continues to urge the public to report suspected child exploitation immediately.

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