Des Moines Man Sentenced to Prison for Possession of Child Pornography

 DES MOINES, IA – On November 9, 2020, United States District Court Chief Judge John A. Jarvey sentenced Phillip Christopher Lytton, age 43, formerly of Des Moines, to 48 months in prison for Possession of Child Pornography, announced United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum. Lytton was ordered to serve five years of supervised release to follow his prison term and comply with sex offender registry requirements upon release.

The investigation began in early 2019 after law enforcement received an investigative lead from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that images of child pornography had been uploaded on a social media account associated with Lytton. The investigation showed that Lytton posted multiple videos and images of child pornography on his Tumblr account from about September 28, 2018 to about November 12, 2018. Lytton was employed as a Transportation Security Officer and worked screening passengers at the Des Moines International Airport from August 2018 until mid-2019. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the United States Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nationwide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children.

Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.