Texas Man Sentenced to 15 Years on Federal Child Pornography Charges

St. Louis, MO – BRYCE THOMSON, Selma, Texas, was sentenced to 188 months involving his transportation of child pornography from Texas to St. Louis.

According to court documents, on March 2, 2015, Thomson flew from Texas to Missouri with a laptop computer, an IPad, an IPhone, a Samsung phone, a Lexar USB thumb drive and four other thumb drives.

Thomson had placed an ad on Craigslist.org seeking to contact people who were “only into real taboo and extremely forbidden things.” The ad contained adult pornography and animated child pornography.  On March 4, 2015, an undercover St. Louis officer contacted Thomson posing as a mother of a girl.  During the chat, Thomson stated that he was in St. Louis on business from Texas and that he was interested in various sexual activities.  He stated his favorite age was nine to thirteen years old.  He sent the officer photos of a minor female in sexually explicit activities and provided his cell phone number for further contact.

On March 5, 2015, Thomson was arrested by the St. Louis County Police at Lambert International Airport as he prepared to depart for Texas.  He stated that he arrived in St. Louis on March 2, 2015, for a business convention.  He admitted posting the ad on Craigslist.  He stated that he had an interest in child pornography for thirty years.  He estimated that he had downloaded one million child pornography images or videos in the last thirty years and had exchanged approximately 500,000 child pornography images or videos in that time.  The majority of those images depicted females between the age of ten and thirteen.  Thomson also told officers that he had inappropriate sexual contact with an eleven-year-old relative in 2000. 

Thomson pled guilty in November to one felony count of transportation of child pornography.  He appeared today for sentencing before United States District Judge Ronnie L. White.

This case was investigated by the St. Louis County Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  First Assistant United States Attorney Carrie Costantin handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.