United States Attorney Joe Kelly announced that Thomas I. Mawhiney, 31, was sentenced today in federal court in Omaha for receiving child pornography. The Honorable Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. sentenced Mawhiney to 78 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal prison system. After his release from prison, Mawhiney will serve a 10-year term of supervised release and will be required to register as a sex offender. His sentence will run consecutive to an undischarged state sentence in Oregon for armed robbery.
In June 2016 investigators with the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force identified a North Omaha residence offering to share child pornography by computer. A search warrant was executed on the residence on July 29, 2016. Mawhiney was identified as the individual downloading and sharing child pornography. His electronic devices held 50 videos and 4,000 images of child pornography. Many of the images depicted infants and toddlers engaged in various forms of sexual acts.
Mawhiney left Omaha shortly after the search. He was convicted of armed robbery in Oregon. His federal sentence will run consecutive to his state robbery conviction.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorney’s 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.
This case was investigated by the Omaha FBI's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
