Thomas Alan Arthur, Child Exploitation, Texas 2021

A Texas man has been convicted of multiple obscenity crimes involving children after a three-day trial, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.

Thomas Alan Arthur, 64, of Terlingua, Texas, was found guilty of three counts of trafficking in obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of a child, five counts of trafficking in obscene text stories about the sexual abuse of children, and one count of engaging in the business of selling obscene matters involving the sexual abuse of children.

The evidence presented in court showed that Arthur operated a website called Mr. Double, which was dedicated to publishing writings that detail the sexual abuse of children, including the rape, torture, and murder of infants and toddlers.

According to the indictment, Arthur began operating the website in 1996 and started charging members for access to the site in 1998. The website was taken offline in November 2019 when the FBI executed a search warrant at his residence near Terlingua.

The evidence also showed that all submissions for publication were reviewed and approved by Arthur before he posted them on the site, and some of the author pages contained drawings depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Austion M. Berry of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica Morrison of the Middle District of Tennessee, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Fidel Esparza of the Western District of Texas are prosecuting the case with assistance from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 19, 2021. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, Texas Department of Public Safety, and Brewster County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.

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