Source: Office of United States Attorneys
Jacksonville, Florida – Chief United States District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced Andrew Thomas Bull (37, Tolland, CT), a/k/a Andrew Thomas Picard, to 30 years in federal prison for attempting to entice an 11-year-old child to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing photos of her own sexual abuse. The court also ordered Bull to serve a 10-year term of supervised release and forfeit the electronic device that he used to commit this offense. Bull is a convicted sex offender who was convicted of importation and possession of child pornography in Connecticut in 2013, and was on court-ordered probation when he was arrested on May 25, 2023. Bull was detained and transported to Jacksonville. He pleaded guilty on February 18, 2025.
According to court documents, on November 15, 2022, an FBI agent (UC) in the Jacksonville area was conducting an online undercover operation to identify adults seeking to meet and engage in sexual activity with children. The UC posted a text message in a public chat room on a social media application (app) indicating that the UC had access to an 11-year-old “child.” Later that same day, user “brdr1066,” subsequently identified as Bull, contacted the UC directly using the private online text messaging feature of the app. Bull asked the UC to confirm the age and sexual experience of the “child.” Bull sent the UC explicit photos of himself to show to the “child.” Between November 2022 and May 2023, during text conversations on the app, Bull confirmed his desire to have sex with the “child,” and he sent the UC photos depicting young children being sexually abused. He solicited the UC to take and send to Bull pornographic photos of the “child,” and directed the UC as to how the UC could accomplish this. On May 9, 2023, Bull asked the UC, “do i get live pics tonight? / before she goes to bed hopefully / you ask to see her [genitalia] yet?”
On May 25, 2023, FBI agents arrested Bull and executed a federal search warrant at his residence. A search of Bull’s cellphone revealed that it contained at least 15 videos and 40 photos depicting children being sexually abused, including an infant.
“Protecting kids from predators is among the most important work that we do at the FBI,” said Jason Carley, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Jacksonville Division. “Let this case be a warning – the FBI is relentless in our efforts to identify and stop child predators from abusing our kids.”
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Jacksonville and New Haven, Connecticut. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys D. Rodney Brown and Kelly S. Milliron.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 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, locate, and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.