United States Attorney David Capp

Northern District of Indiana

5400 Federal Plaza, Suite 1500

Hammond, Indiana 46320

Hammond South Bend Fort Wayne

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Mary Hatton

May 14, 2012 PHONE: (219) 937-5603

www.usdoj.gov/usao/inn/ FAX (219) 852-2770

LAFAYETTE MAN SENTENCED FOR POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

Hammond, Indiana-United States Attorney David Capp announced that Anthony Diangelo Thompson, 20, of Lafayette, Indiana, was sentenced by Judge Joseph S. Van Bokkelen to after pleading guilty to the felony offense of possession of child pornography.

According to the Sentencing Memorandum filed by the government in this case, Thompson, over a several week period in and around September 2010, knowingly and intentionally offered to trade child pornography with a number of individuals and then distributed six and received 3 e-mails containing hundreds of images of child pornography, including images depicting minors under the age of 12, and depicting minors being caused to participate in sadomasochistic conduct. During the course of the investigation, Thompson confessed to possessing, receiving and distributing child pornography using an internet address, that he went to a website that used email as a means to trade child pornography, that he had traded hundreds of photos depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct and that he had collected over a thousand such images.

This case resulted from an investigation by members of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, including ICE - Homeland Security Investigations, the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Lafayette Police Department. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jill Koster.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States 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.