Georgia Man Sentenced to More Than Seven Years in Federal Prison for Receiving Child Pornography Over the Internet

JACKSONVILLE, FL—United States District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan today sentenced Alfredo Roberto Townsend (48, Columbus, Georgia) to 90 months in federal prison and a 15-year term of supervised release for receiving child pornography over the Internet. Townsend was also ordered to register as a sex offender and forfeit his computer media. Townsend pleaded guilty to this charge on February 23, 2012, and has been in custody since his arrest on May 3, 2011.

According to court documents, in February 2011, an undercover officer with the Florida Attorney General’s Office connected to the Internet to identify individuals using a particular computer network to share files containing child pornography. For several weeks during February and March 2011, the undercover officer was able to track a computer that was sharing files containing child pornography. The computer belonged to Alfredo Roberto Townsend. During this period, the computer was using different Internet connections at several locations, including Townsend’s permanent residence in Columbus, Georgia; his residence in an apartment complex in Jacksonville, Florida; and a temporary housing unit on Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.

According to court documents, on May 3, 2011, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Townsend’s apartment residence on Kernan Boulevard in Jacksonville. During an interview, Townsend indicated that he traveled to Georgia about every two weeks and admitted to using other unsecured wireless networks. Townsend admitted that he started downloading child pornography out of “sick curiosity” and that he had been downloading child pornography prior to the middle of 2009. He stated that there were images of children as young as 1 year old and up to 15 years old on his computer and admitted that he primarily looks at prepubescent children. A search of Townsend’s laptop computer revealed that it contained 27 images and 245 videos of child pornography, all downloaded during the period from August 27, 2009 to May 3, 2011.

This case was investigated by the former Child Predator Cybercrime Unit of the Florida Attorney General’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, and the Warner Robins Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

It is another case brought 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. Led by the 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. 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.”