Jacksonville Man Pleads Guilty to Receiving Child Pornography Over the Internet

JACKSONVILLE—United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announced today that John Carver Lester (61, Jacksonville) has pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography over the Internet. Lester faces a mandatory minimum of five years and up to 20 years in federal prison and a potential life term of supervised release. Lester has been in the custody of the United States Marshals Service since his arrest in Jacksonville on December 20, 2012. A sentencing hearing has not yet been set.

According to court documents, in October 2012, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Jacksonville began an investigation to identify individuals that had access to and/or were trading images and videos depicting child pornography over the Internet. The agent determined that a computer using a particular Internet protocol (IP) address in the Jacksonville area was hosting images of child pornography using a file sharing program. The agent made a connection to this computer through the Internet and downloaded several video files directly from this computer. Each of the videos depicted young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Further investigation revealed that the IP address came back to Lester’s Jacksonville residence.

According to court documents, on December 10, 2012, FBI agents and other law enforcement officers executed a federal search warrant at Lester’s residence and seized, among other things, four computers and several hundred compact disks.

During an interview with law enforcement, Lester stated that he had been downloading child pornography for approximately five years and had developed a curiosity for it. Lester also stated that he was worried about possibly wanting to touch a child.

A subsequent forensic analysis of the computers used by Lester revealed that they contained a total of 261 videos and 844 images depicting child pornography.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

This case was 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 (CEOS), 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.justice.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the tab “Other Resources.”