Source: Office of United States Attorneys
ASHLAND, Ky. – An Ashland man, Walter Sherman Thomas, 43, was sentenced on Monday, to 240 months in prison, by U.S. District Judge David Bunning, for distribution of child pornography.
According to his plea agreement, a cyber tip led law enforcement to a Reddit account that was reported for uploading child sexual abuse material. Law enforcement searched the Reddit account and found several sexually explicit images of minors. Additionally, a Reddit chat, that detailed the user’s employment, lead law enforcement to identify Thomas as the owner of the account. Law enforcement interviewed Thomas and searched his phones, which contained 205 sexually explicit images and 87 sexually explicit videos of minors.
Under federal law, Thomas must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 25 years.
Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Michael Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office; and Chief William Todd Kelley, Ashland Police Department, jointly announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Ashland Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Melton is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted this case 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 U.S. 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.
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