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Press Release

Dallas Man Sentenced to 151 Months in Federal Prison on Child Porn Conviction

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

DALLAS — Avel Barron, 26, of Dallas, was sentenced this afternoon by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to 151 months in federal prison, following his guilty plea in September 2015 to one count of receipt of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

According to documents filed in the case, in late July 2015, Barron used his computer and the Internet to receive videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

When special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant at his residence on August 4, 2015, agents found and seized computers and other computer media.  Barron, who was present during the search, acknowledged that he possessed more than 175 images and videos of child pornography.  Some of those images and videos that he collected depicted sadistic acts involving children, and some of the images and videos he possessed depicted infants or toddlers.

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 FBI investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks was in charge of the prosecution.

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Updated June 23, 2016

Topic
Project Safe Childhood