Mesquite Man Sentenced To 40 Months In Federal Prison For Possessing Child Pornography

Defendant Had More than 3000 Images and Eight Videos of Child Porn

DALLAS — Christopher Vernon George, 41, of Mesquite, Texas, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey to 40 months in federal prison and a 10-year term of supervised release, following his guilty plea in October 2012 to an Information charging one count of possession of child pornography. George was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on March 4, 2013.

During an investigation involving the website, “liberalmorality.com,” which offered sexually explicit images of videos of minor children for download, investigators were able to identify an IP address associated with George. A state search warrant was executed at George’s residence, which at the time was in Garland, Texas, by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and officers of the Garland Police Department. Investigators seized George’s computer and external storage media.

George admitted that he had been downloading and viewing child pornography for 15 years. A forensic analysis of the items seized identified more than 3000 images and eight videos of child pornography that George had downloaded from the Internet.

This matter 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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better 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 For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

ICE HSI and the Garland Police Department investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks was in charge of the prosecution.