Jacksonville, Florida – Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan has sentenced John Thomas Jackson (43, Lake City) to 20 years in federal prison for distributing visual depictions of child sexual abuse. The Court also ordered Jackson to serve a life term of supervised release, to register as a sex offender, and to forfeit the phone that he had used to distribute the images and videos of children being sexually abused.
Jackson had pleaded guilty on October 25, 2021, and has been detained since his arrest on July 4, 2021.
According to court documents, the FBI received information that an individual using the alias “Terry Borden” was sending hundreds of files over the internet depicting prepubescent children being sexually abused. The FBI interviewed an individual who was chatting online with “Terry Borden” and reviewed communication between “Terry Borden” and the other individual in which “Terry Borden” indicated that he planned to produce sexually explicit photographs of two minor girls the next day. “Terry Borden” also discussed plans to molest a child and have sex with a child over the course of the weekend. Further investigation confirmed that the user “Terry Borden” was actually John Thomas Jackson.
Jackson also engaged in an online chat with an FBI agent posing as a 14-year-old girl, sent nude photographs of himself and photographs of himself wearing women’s underwear to the 14-year-old “child,” and requested nude photographs of the minor. He told the “child” that he had previously engaged in sexual activity with an 8-year-old female child and invited the “child” to join a private chat room that catered to individuals interested in sexual activity between “daughters and daddies” of which he was the administrator. Jackson uploaded files depicting child sexual abuse material to that chatroom prior to and after he invited the “child” to join the chat room.
The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI executed a search warrant at Jackson’s residence on July 4, 2021. During an interview with law enforcement, Jackson admitted that he is “Terry Borden,” that he watches and trades videos of children as young as 2-years-old being sexually assaulted, and that he has sexual urges that are satisfied by his viewing of child sexual abuse material. Jackson admitted to trading files depicting the sexual assault of children over the internet with hundreds of individuals and that he has been doing so for 10 years.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kelly S. Karase. Assistant United States Attorney Mai Tran handled the forfeiture.
This is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Making sure that victims of federal crimes are treated with compassion, fairness and respect.