Jonathan S. Mills, 36, of Collinsville, Illinois, was sentenced today in federal court to 6 ½ years in prison for Accessing with Intent to View Child Pornography, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced. Following his prison sentence, Mills will be on federal supervised release for 10 years and will also be required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.
“This was a very just sentence for a very disturbing person." said United States Attorney Wigginton. “Making such filth available to others assures that the very real children victimized in these images will continue to be victimized time and time again. I hope that this sentence will tell others to stop this abhorrent criminal behavior."
Court documents establish that in March 2012, during an undercover investigation, agents from the United States Secret Service Southern Illinois Cyber-Crime Unit identified child pornography offered for download from Mills’ computer through the use of a peer-to-peer networking site. Based on the information gathered in the investigation, agents obtained a search warrant for Mills’ residence from which numerous items of computer media were seized. The forensic examination of Mills’ computers revealed that over 69,000 image and video files containing child pornography had been viewed by Mills. During an interview with law enforcement, Mills admitted to viewing images and video files containing child pornography on his computer.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources."
The investigation was conducted by the United States Secret Service Southern Illinois Cyber-Crime Unit and the Illinois State Police. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ali Summers.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
