MACON, Ga. – A former truck driver and Georgia resident has pleaded guilty to distribution of child pornography.
Stanley Joseph Weaver, 60, formerly of McDonough (Henry County), Georgia, and currently of Jackson (Butts County), Georgia, pleaded guilty to distribution of child pornography before U.S. District Judge Tilman E. “Tripp” Self on Oct. 6. Weaver faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 5 years imprisonment up to a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, no less than five years up to a lifetime of supervised release and registration as a sex offender upon release from prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 6, 2022.
“Stanley Weaver distributed hundreds of thousands of images of child pornography, fully immersed in an online world which feeds off the pain and suffering of innocent children,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office will hold Weaver, and other child predators, accountable for their criminal roles exploiting and victimizing children.”
“A child is victimized every single time pornographic images of that child are shared, and in this case, it was hundreds of thousands of times,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “That’s why the FBI makes it a high priority to remove predators like Weaver from our everyday society, unable to inflict any more pain and suffering on innocent children.”
According to court documents, FBI agents determined Weaver distributed child pornography on publicly available peer to peer sharing software to FBI undercover agents on multiple occasions, most recently on Jan. 12, 2021. Weaver was taken into custody on Jan. 23. Weaver shared a total of 342,756 files (524.8 GB) of child pornography involving prepubescent minors, sadomasochism, infants and toddlers during two interactions with undercover agents plus a combined 54 images and six videos of child pornography during two more interactions with a foreign law enforcement partner.
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 the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
The case was investigated by the FBI.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Katelyn Semales and Criminal Chief Michael Solis are prosecuting the case.
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