Press Release
WELLINGTON MAN SENTENCED TO 15 YEARS ON INTERNET CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES
January 30, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Investigations, announced that defendant Timothy Beckett, 22, formerly of Wellington, FL, was sentenced to 15 years in jail by U.S. District Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp, on charges of possession of child pornography, production of child pornography, and attempting to entice minors to engage in sexual activity. Beckett also faces a lifetime of supervised release, and must register as a sex offender.
After a three-day trial, a federal jury convicted Beckett of one count of possession of child pornography, 14 counts of production of child pornography, and four counts of attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity. According to the trial evidence, Beckett created a My Space page in which he pretended to be a 16-17 year old girl named “Chelsea.” Using that persona, Beckett approached began chatting with several 16-17 year old boys. Over the course of the chats, Beckett, would send the boys sexually suggestive photographs of a 16-17 year old female he had previously downloaded from the internet claiming they were of “Chelsea”. Beckett then enticed and persuaded the boys to take pornographic pictures of themselves and transmit those photographs to him via the internet. Upon receiving the pornographic pictures of the victims, Beckett would then send the boys an e-mail telling them that he was in fact a male, demanding that they meet him and demanding that they allow him to perform oral sex on them. When the boys refused to comply with his demands, Beckett threatened to send the pornographic pictures of the boys to all of their friends on their respective My Space friends list.
On one occasion, Beckett was actually able to lure one of the boys into meeting him under the guise of pretending to be “Chelsea’s” brother. The defendant was ultimately identified and a state search warrant was executed on the defendant’s apartment. Beckett’s computers were seized during the execution of the search warrant. A computer forensic examination revealed that Beckett was in possession of approximately 66 videos of child pornography. In addition, on Beckett’s computer law enforcement recovered the pornographic photographs of and a number of the chats with the boys.
United States Attorney Acosta stated, “Our children all too often become the victims of abuse by sexual predators who seek to hide behind the anonymity provided by the internet. We remain committed to aggressively investigating and prosecuting these types of crimes.”
“Today’s sentencing sends a strong message that ICE agents will continue to police cyberspace to investigate and bring to justice those who sexually exploit the most vulnerable segment of our society, our children,” said Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge of ICE’s office of Investigations in Miami. “ICE relentlessly pursues predators who sexually abuse children, whether that abuse is physical or whether it is accomplished by exploiting their images.”
Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Office of Investigations, and the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, in this matter. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Lothrop Morris and Jennifer Millien.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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