Fort Myers, Florida – In a disturbing case of online child abuse, Richard Welbourne, a 67-year-old man from Port Charlotte, has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for possessing and accessing with intent to view images depicting the sexual abuse of children.
Welbourne’s sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell, who also ordered him to serve 15 years of supervised release and register as a sex offender. The defendant pleaded guilty to the charges on January 12, 2024.
According to court documents, Welbourne knowingly possessed and accessed with intent to view child sexual abuse material between August 7, 2022, and November 15, 2022. He searched for, downloaded, and viewed the images from the internet during this time period.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received four cybertips from an Electronic Service Provider in June 2022, reporting that Welbourne was involved in the possession of child sexual abuse material. The FBI executed a search warrant at Welbourne’s residence on November 15, 2022, and seized his computer, which was later found to contain child sexual abuse material.
Welbourne admitted to agents that he would click on links containing child sexual abuse material and save them to his “favorites” in the web browser. He claimed that he did not save any of the images or videos to his computer. In a disturbing admission, Welbourne stated that he had seen girls as young as 4 or 5 years old on the CSAM sites that he visited and had been accessing the internet to view CSAM for approximately 20 years.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Fort Myers Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Yolande G. Viacava as 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.
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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