Gainesville man gets 20 years in child porn case
Published: Monday, January 3, 2011 at 6:29 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, January 3, 2011 at 6:29 p.m.
The U.S. Attorney's Office has announced that Stephen Todd Nelson, 44, of Gainesville, was sentenced Monday to 20 years in federal prison, to be followed by lifelong supervised release, for receipt and distribution of child pornography.
Between May 30 and July 21, Nelson used file sharing software to collect and distribute the pornography over the Internet, according to a Justice Department news release.
His home was searched on July 21, and investigators reported finding many computers containing pornographic images and videos of prepubescent children engaged in sex acts and "the sadistic and masochistic sexual abuse of children," according to the news release. "As a result of this investigation, law enforcement identified and rescued a child who had been sexually exploited by Nelson."
In a prepared statement U.S. Attorney Pamela Marsh said: "The children in these images are real children, real human beings, whose lives are dramatically changed forever by these criminal acts. I commend law enforcement for their efforts that very literally saved an innocent child from further exploitation."
She recognized the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Gainesville Police Department, the FBI and the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office for their work on the case. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Frank Williams.
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