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Press Release

Abilene Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Having Images of Prepubescent Child Porn on His Cell Phone

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Texas

ABILENE, Texas — A 69-year-old Abilene, Texas, man, Jackie Lee Whitt, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor to serve 120 months in federal prison, following his guilty plea in February 2016 to one count of access with intent to view prepubescent child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

According to documents filed in the case, while living in Abilene, Whitt owned a Samsung cell phone that he used to access the Internet with the intent to view depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Whitt knew some of the images depicted minors under age 12.  He viewed numerous images of prepubescent minors, many who were well under age 12, engaged in various forms of sexually explicit conduct.  Whitt had been convicted in federal court in 2003 of six counts of Interstate Receipt of Child Pornography, and served a 57-month term of imprisonment in that case.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Project Safe Childhood (PSC) initiative.  PSC is a department initiative launched in May 2006 to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, tribal and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  Since FY 2011, the Department of Justice has filed 20,260 PSC cases against 19,111 defendants.  These cases include prosecutions of child sex trafficking; sexual abuse of a minor or ward; child pornography offenses; obscene visual representation of the sexual abuse of children; selling or buying of children; and many more statutes.  To learn more about PSC’s work, please visit: https://www.justice.gov/psc.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lubbock, Texas, was in charge of the prosecution.

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Updated June 13, 2016

Topic
Project Safe Childhood