Tucson man sentenced for possession of child pornography

TUCSON, Ariz. - A Tucson man was sentenced to seven years in prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to possessing more than 60,000 images and 7,700 videos of child pornography following an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

An ICE HSI investigation discovered that Adam Fell Berner, 47, had subscribed to several online services which sold child pornography images over the Internet. Financial records revealed Berner paid for these subscriptions on multiple occasions throughout 2006.

In April 2008, a search warrant was executed at Berner's residence and his computer seized. A forensic examination of the computer revealed 59,108 still images and 7,780 videos of child pornography. In addition to the first computer Berner admitted that he also possessed another computer which was found to contain more than 1,000 images of child pornography.

The investigation that led to this case was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, Internet pornographers and foreign-national predators.

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 instances of child sexual exploitation or missing children may also 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.