GREENSBORO, N.C. - A Sanford man who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment today, announced Matthew G.T. Martin, United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina.
SCOTT SAMUEL YOUNG, 28, of Sanford, North Carolina, pleaded guilty on March 8, 2018, to one count of possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to 120 months of imprisonment followed by 20 years of supervised release by United States District Judge N. Carlton Tilley, Jr.
YOUNG had previously been convicted of a state child pornography offense in Lee County Superior Court on Jan. 20, 2016, under the alias Justin Presendorf. In August 2016, the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) received a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a certain Dropbox cloud storage account was being used to store and access child pornography. The SBI identified YOUNG as the user of that Dropbox account, based on the IP addresses and email address used, and the fact that no one had logged into the Dropbox account during the time YOUNG had been incarcerated for his state conviction. That cloud storage account contained 2,020 images and 135 videos of child pornography.
On September 9, 2016, investigators seized a phone found in YOUNG’S possession and arrested him after determining that the phone contained child pornography. Investigators found 369 images and 174 videos of child pornography on the phone.
This case was investigated by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Both agencies are members of the North Carolina Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Eric L. Iverson.
It was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat online 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 better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
