Wesley Chapel Man Sentenced To Life In Prison For Exploiting And Producing Sexual Abuse Material Depicting Children

Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven has sentenced Clayton Everett Colborn (31, Wesley Chapel) to life in federal prison for enticement and coercion of a minor to engage in sexual activity, using minors to produce child sexual abuse images and videos, and possessing child sexual abuse material. The court also ordered Colborn to forfeit a cellphone, which was used in the commission of the offense. Colborn had pleaded guilty in March 2023.

According to court documents, between 2018 and 2020, Colborn used a social networking application to find minors for the purpose of engaging in sex acts. Colborn, who was between the ages of 27 and 28 at the time of his offenses, created a fictitious profile named “Jason Rich” and indicated that he was 16 years old. The social networking application is designed to help people make friendships and has two distinct age groups based on a user’s profile: 1) ages 13 to 17 years old, and 2) 18 years and older. Using the fictitious profile, Colborn met the victims in group one–ages 13 to 17 years old. He told the victims he was 16 years old and enticed them into engaging in sexual intercourse with him at various locations throughout the Middle District of Florida, including in his car, his apartment, and victims’ residences. In one instance, the Ocoee Police Department caught Colborn in a public park in the middle of the night with a child victim. Colborn’s pants were unzipped at the time officers chased and apprehended him in the park. Law enforcement officers obtained DNA evidence, which showed that Colborn had engaged in sexual activity with the child victim.

To date, the FBI has identified and interviewed eight child victims who all resided within the Middle District of Florida. Colborn victimized each child victim in a similar manner.

During the investigation, the FBI obtained a federal search warrant for Colborn’s iCloud account and found approximately 30 videos and 81 images that Colborn had produced of himself sexually abusing young girls between the ages of 13 and 17 years old.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Tampa and Jacksonville Divisions), the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, the Ocoee Police Department, and the Tampa Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ilyssa Spergel.

This is another case 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, 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.