A man from Largo, Florida, has been sentenced to eight years and one month in federal prison for accessing and viewing child pornography, according to a recent court ruling.
Tampa, FL – Eric Thomas, a 37-year-old man from Largo, was found guilty of accessing with the intent to view child pornography by a federal jury on June 12, 2014. The case was brought against Thomas after his then-wife discovered evidence of his illicit activities on their home computer in July 2012.
According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Thomas had taken considerable steps to conceal his activities and remove Internet history and child pornography files from his computer. A subsequent search and forensic analysis of the computer revealed that more than 850 images of child pornography had been deleted from the computer.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Largo Police Department, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, in conjunction with Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
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. The initiative is led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS).
Thomas’s sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer L. Peresie and Josephine W. Thomas. This case serves as another example of the efforts brought forth by Project Safe Childhood to combat child exploitation.
The indictment against Eric Thomas was filed on September 25, 2013, and it is just one of the many cases brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. The organization’s mission is to bring justice to victims of child exploitation and to prevent such crimes from occurring in the future.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov. The website provides information on the initiative, as well as resources for victims and families affected by child exploitation.
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Category: Sex Crimes|Cybercrime
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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