North Texas man sentenced to 90 years in federal prison for producing child pornography

FORT WORTH, Texas – A North Texas man was sentenced Monday to 90 years in federal prison for producing child pornography by sexually exploiting children.

This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox, for the Northern District of Texas. This case was investigated by the following agencies: River Oaks (Texas) Police Department, Tarrant County District Attorney’s Digital Forensics Unit, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Timothy Paul Malone, 39, of River Oaks, Texas, pleaded guilty in November 2017 to two counts of sexually exploiting children, and one count of attempting to sexually exploit children. U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor sentenced Malone to 360 months for each of the three counts, to run consecutively for a total of 1,080 months. Malone has been in custody since his indictment in September 2017.

According to documents filed in the case, Malone persuaded and enticed two minor children in Watauga and Haslet, Texas, to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a video. Malone also attempted to use another minor child to create a video of the minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

In January 2017, law enforcement conducted a search warrant, according to plea documents, at Malone’s residence and seized a number of electronic devices. An examination of the devices revealed a number of child pornography videos and images including those of the minors previously mentioned.

Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Saleem, Northern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.

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 16,000 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 2016, more than 2,600 child predators were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 800 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.

For additional information about wanted suspected child predators, download HSI’s Operation Predator smartphone app or visit the online suspect alerts page. HSI is a founding member 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.