Gabriel Todd Prater Sentenced to 151 Months in Prison for Distribution of Child Pornography

KNOXVILLE, TN—Gabriel Todd Prater, 28, of Lancing, Tennessee, was sentenced today to 151 months in federal prison and 10 years' supervised release, as a result of a guilty plea on January 6, 2010, to distribution of child pornography.

This case developed from an online undercover investigation conducted by the Knoxville Police Department, Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC), which led to the issuance of a search warrant for Prater’s residence. A forensic examination of Prater’s computer and computer-related media found that he was in possession of more than 1,000 child pornography images, some of which depicted sexual acts with prepubescent children and material that was sadistic or masochistic in nature. United States District Court Judge Thomas Phillips determined that Prater distributed more than 60 of the images.

This conviction is the result of a joint investigation conducted by the Knoxville Police Department, ICAC and the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank M. Dale, Jr. represented the United States.

As part of its public outreach efforts, the Department today re-launched ProjectSafeChildhood.gov, the Project Safe Childhood (PSC) public website. PSC is a Department initiative launched in 2006 that aims to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, tribal, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.