JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 61-year-old Jacksonville man was sentenced Tuesday to five years in federal prison for receiving child pornography over the Internet.
John Lester was also ordered to serve an eight-year term of supervised release, forfeit five computers, and register as a sex offender. He pleaded guilty April 25 and has been in the custody of the United States Marshals Service since his arrest on Dec. 20.
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According to court documents, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Jacksonville began an investigation to identify individuals who had access to and/or were trading images and videos depicting child pornography over the Internet. The agent determined that a computer in the Jacksonville area was hosting images of child pornography using a file sharing program.
The agent made a connection to the computer and downloaded several video files. Each of the videos depicted young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Further investigation revealed that the IP address resolved back to Lester's Jacksonville home.
According to court documents, on Dec. 10, FBI agents and other law enforcement officers executed a federal search warrant at Lester's home and seized, among other things, five computers and several hundred CDs.
During an interview with law enforcement, Lester said he had been downloading child pornography for about five years and had developed a curiosity for it. Lester also said he was worried about possibly wanting to touch a child.
A subsequent forensic analysis of the computers used by Lester revealed that they contained a total of 261 videos and 844 images depicting child pornography.