GREENSBORO, N.C. - A man who pleaded guilty to production of child pornography was sentenced today, announced Matthew G.T. Martin, United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina.
ANTHONY JAMES BARRY, 19, of Kannapolis, North Carolina, pleaded guilty on November 7, 2018, to one count of production of child pornography. He was sentenced by United States Chief District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder to 204 months of imprisonment followed by 10 years of supervised release.
In April 2018, an adult woman made a report to the Boone Police Department (BPD) that an individual, purporting to be a modeling agent, was attempting to extort her via Snapchat; a mobile messaging application. BPD Detective Jason Reid’s subsequent investigation revealed that the IP addresses used by the suspect resolved to BARRY’s residence in Rowan County. Detective Reid also discovered that BARRY had used Snapchat to attempt to extort sexual images from numerous minors and to trade child pornography. During a May 2018 incident, BARRY, purporting to be a government agency, coerced an 11 year old girl to produce a child pornography image of her sleeping 10 year old sister.
On July 27, 2018, law enforcement agents arrested BARRY and searched his home. BARRY admitted that he found his victims by perusing LiveMe; a social media application that enables users to broadcast themselves and is popular with young people. He also admitted to trading child pornography and recalled extorting the 11 year old girl.
This case was investigated by the Boone Police Department, a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, in conjunction with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations. 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
