Ricky Grover Aaron, 62, Receives 120 Months in Prison for Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material

A recidivist sex offender has been sentenced to prison for possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

Ricky Grover Aaron, 62, of Charlotte, was sentenced to 120 months in prison. He was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release and pay restitution to his victims.

The sentence was handed down after Aaron pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography involving a prepubescent minor or a minor who had not attained age 12 on October 29, 2024.

Aaron was found to have possessed the equivalent (when taking videos into account) of more than 300,000 CSAM images that depicted minors including infants, toddlers, and children under the age of 12, being sexually abused and exploited.

The FBI was conducting an undercover online investigation to identify individuals sharing CSAM using peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Investigators determined that Aaron was utilizing a BitTorrent application to make CSAM available for others, and on multiple occasions, were able to download CSAM files from one or more of Aaron’s electronic devices.

A search warrant was executed at Aaron’s residence in November 2022. Several electronic devices were seized and forensically examined.

Aaron failed to register as a sex offender in Mecklenburg County after he moved to North Carolina, as he was required to do because he had two convictions prior to this one, a federal conviction for receipt and possession of CSAM, and a state conviction for false imprisonment and aggravated exploitation of a minor in Tennessee.

Under the provisions of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), convicted sex offenders are required to register with the Sex Offender Registry Board in any state or jurisdiction where they work or reside.

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

U.S. Attorney Ferguson commended the FBI for their investigation of the case.

Assistant United States Attorney Katherine Armstrong of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Operation Restore Justice, a nationwide crackdown on child sex predators, which resulted in the rescue of 115 children and the arrest of 205 child sexual abuse offenders in the Western District of North Carolina.

The operation was led by the FBI in North Carolina and involved all 55 FBI field offices, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) in the Department’s Criminal Division, and United States Attorney’s Offices around the country.

Ricky Grover Aaron is in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.

MORE FEDERAL CRIME NEWS

Sex Crimes

Valentine Cancino, Child Sexual Abuse Material Production, Texas 2023

Aug 20, 2025

Sex Crimes

Peter James Monson, Producing Child Pornography, Minnesota 2020

Oct 5, 2021

Sex Crimes

James Parkhurst, Transporting Child Pornography, Oregon 2024

Mar 8, 2018

Sex Crimes

Christopher Barker, Failure to Register as Sex Offender, West Virginia 2024

Aug 8, 2016