Florida man sentenced to 350 years for child pornography charges

ORLANDO, Fla. – A Florida man was sentenced Monday to 350 years in federal prison for nine counts of producing child pornography, three counts of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Cocoa Beach office and the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.

According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, on nine separate occasions, between October 2014 and March 2015, Joshua Adam Tatro, 24, of Merritt Island, produced images and videos depicting him sexually abusing a three-year-old child. He also used a messaging app on his phone to send and receive images depicting child pornography and uploaded images of child pornography onto an online account that he maintained. Law enforcement began investigating Tatro after they learned of his online activity from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

On March 17, 2015, agents from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at Tatro’s residence. During the execution of the warrant cell phones were recovered from Tatro’s pocket and his bedroom. A forensic examination of those phones led to the recovery of the explicit images and videos that Tatro had produced. During an interview with agents, Tatro admitted to producing the images and videos, and to sending them to others using the messenger app. 

In total, Tatro possessed 76 videos and 692 photographs of child pornography on his cell phones. A search of his online drive account revealed more than 1,000 stored images of child pornography. Several of the images in Tatro’s possession depicted children under the age of 12 being sexually abused and exploited. Tatro was found guilty at trial July 6.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Andrew C. Searle, with the office of U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III, Middle District of Florida.

This investigation was conducted under HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators. From outside the U.S. and Canada, callers should dial 802-872-6199. Hearing impaired users can call TTY 802-872-6196.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.