North Texas man sentenced to 40 months in federal prison for possessing child pornography

DALLAS — A north Texas man was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey to 40 months in federal prison and a 10 year term of supervised release, following his guilty plea in October 2012 to one count of possessing child pornography.

Christopher Vernon George, 41, of Mesquite, Texas, was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons March 4.

During an investigation involving the website, "liberalmorality.com," which offered sexually explicit images and videos of minor children for download, investigators identified an Internet protocol address associated with George. A state search warrant was executed at George's residence, which at the time was in Garland, Texas, by special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and officers of the Garland Police Department. Investigators seized George's computer and external storage media.

George admitted that he had been downloading and viewing child pornography for 15 years. A forensic analysis of the items seized identified more than 3,000 still images and eight videos of child pornography that George had downloaded from the Internet.

HSI and the Garland Police Department investigated.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks, Northern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide HSI initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders and child sex traffickers. HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423 or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-843-5678.

HSI is a founding member and current chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.