Bryan Thompson, Child Pornography, Alabama 2020

Grand Bay Man Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison for Child Pornography

United States Attorney Sean P. Costello announced that Bryan Thompson, 44, was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment for producing and distributing child pornography. Thompson pled guilty to the charges in December 2020.

According to court documents, in November 2015, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency was provided with details of a joint investigation between the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department in New Mexico and the FBI. The Bernalillo Sheriff’s Department had been engaged in an online child exploitation investigation and identified a person in Alabama as someone who was trading child pornography online.

Investigators were able to obtain a search warrant for the IP address which was sharing child pornography, and the physical address was associated with Thompson. On November 12, 2015, a search warrant was executed at Thompson’s residence. Thompson was interviewed and admitted that he joined chat groups and received child pornography images and videos from a number of those chat groups.

Agents seized numerous electronic devices from the home, including two hard drives, one tablet, several smartphones, and one micro SD card. A forensic analysis was completed by Homeland Security Investigations, revealing that the devices contained 971 images and 214 videos of child exploitation material.

During the forensic analysis, the forensic analyst discovered images that appeared to show Thompson performing sex acts on a pre-pubescent minor. On January 2, 2018, Thompson was interviewed and admitted that he had inappropriate contact with a pre-pubescent minor, who was then about six years old. Thompson detailed the abuse for investigators and admitted that he had filmed it.

Agents seized all electronic devices in the home again in 2018. In July 2018, a forensic analyst completed analysis on all the devices seized from Thompson, confirming that there were approximately ten images created that showed Thompson’s sexual abuse of the minor. The analyst also located a number of child sexual abuse imagery, child erotica, and age-indeterminate images on the devices.

Thompson gave permission to Homeland Security agents to take over his KIK account, where they located messages in chatrooms where child pornography was being advertised and distributed. In one such group, Thompson had posted a link to a MEGA account which contained 970 images of child pornography, including child bestiality and child S&M images.

United States District Court Chief Judge Kristi DuBose imposed a sentence of 35 years imprisonment, ordering that Thompson undergo mental health treatment while incarcerated. Thompson will also be supervised by federal probation officers for the rest of his life after finishing his prison term and will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release. Judge DuBose ordered that Thompson pay $10,200 in special assessments.

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