Federal Jury Finds Jacksonville Man Guilty of Producing, Receiving, and Possessing Child Pornography

JACKSONVILLE, FL—U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton announced today that a federal jury in Jacksonville has found Anthony William Denham (age 24, of Jacksonville) guilty of using a minor to produce images of child pornography, as well as receiving and possessing child pornography. Denham faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for the production, 20 years for the receipt, and 10 years for the possession. His sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled. He is being detained.

According to evidence introduced during trial, Denham contacted a minor child from another state on a social networking website in early 2009. As their online relationship progressed, Denham persuaded the child to take sexually explicit photographs of herself using the camera on her cellular telephone and to send the photos to Denham on his cell phone. In payment for the photos, Denham provided the child with prepaid minutes for her cell phone. Denham also used a photo of the child to create a fake webpage on another social networking site. Denham then impersonated a young girl on that website in an effort to trade sexually explicit photos to other men online for cell phone minutes and money.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Child Predator CyberCrime Unit of the State of Florida Attorney General’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

This case was 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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s Child Predator CyberCrime Unit is a member of the FBI Cyber Taskforce in Jacksonville and the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, a federally funded program working nationwide to educate and support law enforcement to stop these crimes. More information on the Florida Attorney General’s CyberCrime initiative is available at http://www.myfloridalegal.com.