Winter Park Man Sentenced To Life Imprisonment For Distribution Of Child Sex Abuse Images And Enticement Of A Minor To Produce Child Pornography

Orlando, Florida – U.S. District Judge Paul E. Byron has sentenced Eric Bales (31, Winter Park) to life imprisonment for the enticement of a minor to produce child pornography and 20 years’ imprisonment for the distribution of child sex abuse imagery, to be served consecutively. Bales had pleaded guilty on May 22, 2019.

According to testimony and court documents in August 2018, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police referred an internet-based case lead to Homeland Security Investigations in Orlando, who then executed a federal search warrant on Bales’s residence. HSI agents arrested Bales the same day. The investigation revealed that Bales was using an internet chat room to arrange a meeting with another minor the same morning that HSI had arrested him.

In 2009, Bales was the subject of a state child enticement investigation. He avoided prosecution but, in 2014, was arrested for lewd and lascivious battery on a 14-year-old child. Bales was convicted of willful child abuse and spent two and a half years in prison. After Bales was released from prison in October 2017, he immediately began viewing and collecting images and videos of children being sexually exploited. Bales collected and distributed the explicit imagery over internet using peer-to-peer applications. He also elicited the production of pornographic images from a 16-year-old girl, and shared those images via messaging applications with other minors.

“This serial child predator used social media to spread vile images across the digital spectrum,” said HSI Orlando Assistant Special Agent in Charge David J. Pezzutti. “This investigation highlights HSI’s authority to work with international and local partners, ultimately making our communities a safer place.”

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations. It was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Brandon Bayliss, on assignment from the Office of Principal Legal Advisor, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This 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 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 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.justice.gov/psc.