Tampa Man Sentenced To Five Years In Federal Prison For Uploading And Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Images And Videos

Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew has sentenced John Dixon (76, Tampa) to five years in federal prison for possessing images and videos depicting children being sexually abused. Dixon was also ordered to serve a 10-year term of supervised release, register as a sex offender, and forfeit the electronic devices that he had used to commit his offense.

Dixon had pleaded guilty on December 20, 2020.

According to court documents, on January 26, 2019, Dixon uploaded 32 child sex abuse images to his cloud storage account. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children then received information from the company hosting Dixon’s account that Dixon had uploaded these contraband images and referred the information to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO). On January 29, 2019, HCSO detectives and other officers executed a search warrant at Dixon’s residence in Tampa.

Several electronic devices were seized from Dixon. A forensic examination of these devices revealed that they contained more than 2,000 images and 100 videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, some of whom were under the age of 12. Additionally, some of these videos depicted children to whom Dixon had access and who were as young as three and five years old at the time the videos were created.

This case was investigated by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Candace Garcia Rich.

This is another case brough 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 Attorney’s 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.justice.gov/psc.