New Iberia man sentenced to 9 years in prison for possessing child pornography

LAKE CHARLES, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced that a New Iberia man was sentenced Thursday to 108 months in prison on charges that he downloaded child pornography onto his computer.

Jason Daniel Scott, 32, of New Iberia, La., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patricia Minaldi on one count of possession of child pornography. He was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release and must register as a sex offender. According to evidence presented at the January 29, 2015 guilty plea, agents detected child pornography being downloaded from an internet file sharing service in October of 2010 to a residence in Lafayette Parish, which is where Scott was living at the time. The home was searched on October 20, 2010, and a computer was seized. Once the computer’s hard drive was examined, agents found child pornography that was downloaded from the internet.

Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney John Luke Walker prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative 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 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.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Homeland Security Investigations/Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) encourage the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at (866) DHS-2ICE.  Investigators are available at all hours to answer hotline calls. Tips or other information can also be submitted to ICE online at www.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp. Tips may be submitted anonymously.