GREENSBORO – A North Carolina man was sentenced on July 22, 2022 to 360 months in prison, followed by a term of 15 years of supervised release, for knowingly receiving child pornography after multiple tips to the National Children’s Center of Missing and Exploited Persons (NCMEC) led to his arrest.
According to court documents, Timothy James Bryant, 27, was identified by agents with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NSCBI) after an NCMEC tip revealed that a Twitter user in Durham was suspected of uploading suspected pornographic images. for children on the platform. in 2019 and 2020. In October 2020, NCSBI executed a search warrant at Bryant’s residence where they found several items containing child pornography. Bryant was arrested later that day on state charges without incident.
Subsequent interviews and search warrants revealed that Bryant was in possession of numerous devices containing over twenty-five thousand images and videos of child pornography. During the pendency of the state case, NCMEC received a new tip from Snapchat about alleged inappropriate behavior by a user NCSBI linked to Bryant in March 2021. A federal search warrant for Bryant’s phone revealed that his device contained videos additional child pornography. At the time of his arrest, Bryant had previously been convicted of two counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor in Durham County Superior Court in 2014.
He was charged by the Indictment in the Middle District of North Carolina in April 2021 with one count of knowingly obtaining and attempting to obtain child pornography and one count of knowingly possessing child pornography. In September 2021, Bryant pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography. In addition to the prison term and supervised release, Bryant was ordered to pay $133,500 in restitution to 27 victims.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Durham County Sheriff’s Office and the Durham Police Department assisted with the investigation. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kennedy Gates. It was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat online child sexual exploitation and abuse. The initiative is led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), and focuses on coordinating federal, state and local resources to better identify and prosecute individuals who exploit children online , as well as for the identification and rescue of victims. www.projectsafechildhood.gov
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