A former Onslow County Sheriff’s deputy now faces just over six years in prison after being convicted in federal court of receiving child pornography.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced that Senior United States District Judge James C. Fox sentenced Jon James Thomas, 46, of Jacksonville to 78 months imprisonment, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. The court also ordered Thomas to register as a sex offender.
Thomas was named in an indictment filed in October. In January he pled guilty to one count of Receipt of Child Pornography.
In May of last year the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation in Raleigh initiated an online investigation through the Gnutella network, a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing network. Agents identified and captured the Internet Protocol address (IP address) of a host computer offering to distribute multiple images of Child Pornography. As the investigation continued, agents made a direct connection to the identified host computer between May 11, 2015, and May 13, 2015, and downloaded 12 files depicting Child Pornography.
A subpoena was issued to an internet service provider to identify the subscriber assigned to the captured IP address. The subscriber identified was Thomas.
Based on the investigation, a search warrant was obtained and executed at Thomas’ residence in May. Agents located and seized two computers at which time the defendant provided an unprotected statement to authorities. Specifically, Thomas acknowledged searching for files containing Child Pornography through the use of a P2P program.
Lastly, Thomas indicated that a “couple of hundred” files, both images and videos, were stored on his computer. Forensic examination of the defendant’s computer revealed at least 600 images and 1,040 videos which depicted Child Pornography. Furthermore, forensics recovered 112 deleted images from the defendant’s computer.
This case was part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national program aimed at ensuring that criminals exploiting children are effectively prosecuted by making full use of all available law enforcement resources at every level. For more information about this important national project, Project Safe Childhood, go to www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
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