Bryan Matthew Cooney, Child Pornography, Florida 2018

A former emergency medical technician in Florida has been handed a 19-year prison sentence for possession of child pornography.

Bryan Matthew Cooney, 30, was sentenced to 19 years in federal prison, to be followed by 30 years of supervised release, for possession of child pornography. The court also ordered Cooney to forfeit a cellphone, which was used in furtherance of the commission of the offense.

The charges against Cooney stem from a series of online chats with an FBI undercover agent in 2018. During the chats, Cooney shared images of a 12-year-old girl with the agent and alleged to have had sexually abused and produced images of the girl engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Cooney admitted to chatting with the agent and sharing images of the girl, but claimed that the girl was his friend's daughter. However, investigators found hundreds of videos and numerous images of child pornography on Cooney's Dropbox account, including images of bestiality and sadistic conduct against children between the ages of 4 and 10.

Cooney also admitted to posting images of his friend's daughters on a social media application while pretending that one of the children was his 12-year-old daughter. He claimed that he did this in an effort to obtain images of child pornography from other online users.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Cooney was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ilianys Rivera Miranda.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/former-emergency-medical-technician-sentenced-19-years-possession-child-pornography