WASHINGTON - A 21-year-old District of Columbia man, John Anthony III, has been sentenced to 121 months in prison for Possession of Material Involving Child Pornography, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.

Anthony received his sentence earlier today in U.S. District Court before the Honorable Ellen S. Huvelle, who pursuant to the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, also ordered that the defendant register as a sex offender for the remainder of his lifetime. Once released from prison, the defendant will be on supervised release for twenty years, and he will not be permitted to work or volunteer with children, nor will he be permitted to use or access the Internet without prior written approval. Anthony entered a guilty plea in this case on September 2, 2008.

Previously, in 2006, the defendant was convicted in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia of attempted sexual abuse of a child. While on probation for this offense, Anthony submitted to a polygraph test that was administered as part of his probation. After the polygraph provided inconclusive results, court supervision officers questioned Anthony about child pornography, and he admitted that he had viewed child pornography on the computer at his mother's home.

On October 12, 2007, members of the U.S. Attorney's Office Criminal Investigation Unit and the Metropolitan Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children Unit executed a search warrant at Anthony's mother's home in Southeast Washington, D.C. Detectives spoke to Anthony, who admitted that he downloaded onto his home computer images of children engaged in sex acts. A forensic analysis of the computer revealed images and videos depicting child pornography. The analysis also revealed that in the days prior to the execution of the search warrant, Anthony deleted over 3000 files from the computer, some of which contained child pornography. Some of the images of child pornography he possessed involved prepubescent minors or minors who had not attained the age of 12 years, and some of the images and videos he possessed portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence.

The images located on Anthony's computer were taken to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), where they were compared with NCMEC's Child Recognition & Identification System (CRIS). The analysis resulted in four of the images being identified as known minors, i.e., under age 18.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney's Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor commended the outstanding investigative work of U.S. Attorney's Office Criminal Investigator John Marsh for the forensic computer analysis he provided, as well as the following members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force who provided investigative support: Metropolitan Police Detectives Jonathan Andrews and Timothy Palchak. He also recognized Supervisory Court Supervision Officer Matthew Kiely and Court Supervision Officer Penny Spivey, both of whom followed up on the defendant's initial disclosures and assisted with the investigation. Lastly, the U.S. Attorney praised the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine K. Connelly, who investigated and prosecuted the case.