April 28, 2016
A 30-year-old Philadelphia man was sentenced to nine years in prison on Thursday after admitting to receiving and possessing child pornography.
Tony Myers, 30, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg to 108 months in prison on two counts of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography, according to the United State's Attorney's Office.
Myers pleaded guilty to the charges against him in September.
Law enforcement officials said that with his guilty plea, Myers admitted to receiving and possessing images of child pornography for at least an eight-month span, from August 2013 to April 2014. In addition to the prison term, Myers was ordered to pay restitution of $5,000, serve 20 years of probation and pay a $300 special assessment fee.
The investigation into Myers' activities began in May 2013, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified Homeland Security Investigations that on April 26, 2013, an individual operating a particular Dropbox account had uploaded five files containing child pornography, law enforcement officials said.
About a year later, on April 2, 2014, a search warrant was executed at the defendant’s residence. The U.S. Attorney's Office said Myers made a number of admissions during the course of the interview with agents of Homeland Security.
Myers stated that he watched and downloaded child pornography and preferred images of children between the ages of 12 and 14, law enforcement officials said. Myers also admitted to a pattern of binging on child pornography for three to four days and then breaking his addiction for months.
Agents seized 16 forms of electronic media from Myers’ home and through analysis found about 500 images and more than 50 videos of child pornography.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said that the case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse that was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
