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Press Release

Palm Coast Man Indicted For Receiving And Possessing Child Pornography

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Florida

Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announced today that Timothy Edward McDermott (age 60, Palm Coast) was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of receiving child pornography over the internet and one count of possessing child pornography. If convicted, McDermott faces a minimum mandatory sentence of not less than 5 years and up to 20 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and a potential life term of supervised release for each of the receipt counts. For the possession count, McDermott faces a maximum term of 10 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and a potential life term of supervised release. McDermott was arrested on August 25, 2014 at his residence in Palm Coast.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Dallas, Daytona Beach and Jacksonville, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, and the Wheaton (Illinois) Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

It is another 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 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 and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.

Updated January 26, 2015