Indiana Man Sentenced to Six Years in Prison for Child Pornography Offenses

WASHINGTON—Jason Jewell, 31, of Frankfort, Ind., was sentenced today to six years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for possession and transportation of child pornography, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Timothy M. Morrison of the Southern District of Indiana.

Jewell was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William T. Lawrence in the Southern District of Indiana. Before being sentenced by the court, Jewell entered a guilty plea to a two-count criminal information charging him with transportation and possession of child pornography.

According to court documents, in June 2009, an undercover agent using a peer to peer file sharing program was able to download child pornography images and videos directly from Jewell’s computer. A search warrant was subsequently executed and thousands of child pornography images and hundreds of child pornography video files were found on Jewell’s computer. Jewell admitted to law enforcement officers that he actively distributed and received the files using the peer to peer program.

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 U.S. 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.

The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Mi Yung Park of CEOS and Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven D. DeBrota of the Southern District of Indiana. The case was investigated by the FBI.