Pryce Elijah Demars, Distributing Child Sex Abuse Videos, Florida 2017

Jacksonville Man Caught Distributing Child Sex Abuse Videos

A 24-year-old Jacksonville man has been arrested and indicted for distributing child sex abuse videos, authorities announced Tuesday. Pryce Elijah Demars faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 5 years, up to 20 years, in federal prison and a potential lifetime of supervision. He has been detained pending his trial on January 2, 2018.

According to court documents, FBI agents and local police officers executed a federal search warrant at Demars’s Jacksonville residence on November 15, 2017, in connection with a child exploitation investigation into online users of a particular file-sharing program. FBI agents determined that from August 3, 2016, through April 12, 2017, Demars had distributed videos depicting young children being sexually abused to other individuals using a computer over the Internet.

During an interview, Demars admitted that he had searched for child pornography on the Internet, downloaded it, and distributed it to another individual in exchange for video games and other items of value. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

This case is another example of the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. The investigation was part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.

Demars’s arrest and indictment are a significant step in the fight against child exploitation. The community can be assured that law enforcement agencies are working tirelessly to bring those responsible for these heinous crimes to justice. The FBI encourages parents, guardians, and caregivers to educate their children about online safety and the dangers of child exploitation.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

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