United States Attorney Joe Kelly announced that John A. Duncan, age 37, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced today to 221 months’ imprisonment for receipt and distribution of child pornography by Senior United States District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon. There is no parole in the federal system. After his release from prison, Duncan will be on supervised release for life and will be required to register as a sex offender. In addition, the terms of Duncan’s supervised release prohibit him from having any contact with children under the age of 18, unless it is approved by the United States Probation Office. He was ordered to pay $22,000 in restitution.
An investigation conducted by the FBI determined that in July of 2019, Discord, Inc., a digital file-sharing application, reported that between February 9, 2019, and March 3, 2019, several files of minors under the age of 12 engaging in sexually explicit conduct were distributed at various times to other users of that application. Discord captured multiple Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and an associated email account that was used to upload the images of the minors. The FBI obtained information related to the IP addresses and email account, which ultimately identified Duncan as being associated with the Discord account at the time the child pornography was distributed. The FBI further determined that Duncan resided in Omaha, Nebraska.
The FBI executed a federal search and seized Duncan’s cellular phone. Forensic analysis of the cellular phone found 42 images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, including the specific images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct that were identified in the Discord application distributions. Duncan admitted that he distributed the child pornography from Omaha.
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 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.
(Photo by WOWT 6 News)