North Texas man sentenced to 12 years in federal prison following his guilty plea to child pornography charges

DALLAS — A north Texas man was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release following his November guilty plea to one count of transporting child pornography.

This investigation was conducted by the Dallas Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Guy Martin Johnson, 56, of Addison, Texas, has been in federal custody since he entered his guilty plea. This announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

According to court documents, this investigation began in late January 2012 when law enforcement officials in Florida were involved in an undercover investigation targeting individuals who prey on children on the Internet using popular social media sites. An officer, acting in an undercover capacity, entered a chat room, posing as a mother who had a son interested in sex with an adult male. That same day, a man, later identified as Johnson, contacted the "mother" and over the course of several days chatted with her and expressed his desire to have sex with her 14-year-old son.

A few days later, Johnson talked to the "mother" and asked her if she would like him to send her some videos and images of child pornography, and she agreed. At that time, Johnson sent her, via the Internet, 21 images depicting minors being sexually exploited.

The undercover officer, still posing as the "mother," continued the chats with Johnson and discussed him traveling to Florida to meet her son to have sex with him. However, Johnson never traveled to Florida.

In May 2012, members of the Dallas Police Department's ICAC task force executed a search warrant at Johnson's home. Johnson admitted that he chatted over the Internet in a chat room to someone in Florida, but that it was all fantasy. An analysis of the computer equipment seized during the search revealed 149 images and two videos of child pornography. Johnson admitted that he distributed images to the "mother" that included bondage and other sadistic acts involving minors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks, Northern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide HSI initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders and child sex traffickers. HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423 or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.

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, 1-800-843-5678.

HSI is a founding member and current chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.