Howard County, Texas, man pleads guilty to federal child pornography offenses

Defendant faces up to 50 years in federal prison

LUBBOCK, Texas - A man from Big Spring, Texas, pleaded guilty on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to one count of producing child pornography and one count of receiving a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

The guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. This case is being investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Big Spring Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

John Alan Conroy, 36, faces a statutory sentence of not less than 15 years or more than 50 years in prison, a $500,000 fine and a lifetime of supervised release. Judge Cummings ordered a presentence report with sentencing to be scheduled after the completion of that report. Conroy has been in custody since his arrest in July 2010 on a related charge outlined in a federal criminal complaint.

According to documents filed in the case, in 2009, Conroy lived with a woman and her two young children, Jane and John Doe, in Big Spring. Jane Doe turned eight years old during that year, and John Doe turned 10 years old that year. During part of the year, Conroy was unemployed. The mother of the children worked during the day, and Conroy often was left in charge of Jane Doe.

Conroy purchased a laptop computer in 2007. Beginning some time in 2007 or 2008, he started using it to search the Internet for sexually explicit images and videos of children. He downloaded and collected numerous images and videos depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and stored the images on his computer and on various forms of storage media.

During 2009, when Jane Doe was 7 years old, Conroy began showing her various images and videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Beginning in October 2009, Conroy began engaging in sexual contact with Jane Doe. Then, on Dec. 27, 2009, Conroy used his Canon digital camera to produce sexually explicit videos of Jane Doe. The videos were produced in a residence in Big Spring, Texas.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Lubbock, Texas, is in charge of the prosecution.

This investigation is part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com/.