TAMPA, Fla. – A 43-year-old Jacksonville man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for transporting and possessing child pornography.
The court also ordered James Dale Little to serve a life term of supervision and to register as a sex offender upon his release. A federal jury found him guilty on Oct. 21.
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According to evidence presented during the three-day trial, law enforcement officers identified Little while investigating another individual with whom Little had been trading child pornography via email. The agents discovered that Little had received and sent images of prepubescent minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct and materials portraying children engaged in sadistic conduct and violence.
Little had a prior conviction in 1996 for injury to a child in Galveston, Texas. Evidence at sentencing showed that this prior conviction involved Little’s molestation and sexual abuse of a 4-year-old child.
"Protecting our children from these heinous crimes is one of the top priorities of Homeland Security Investigations," said Susan L. McCormick, special agent in charge of HSI Tampa. “This sentencing is one more step in making our communities safer.”
The case was investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kelly S. Karase and Gregory Nolan.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.