ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Matthew Lee Dale Taylor, 31, of Hobbs, New Mexico, pleaded guilty on May 25 in federal court to transportation of child pornography, possession of obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children, and a registered sex offender committing a felony offense involving a minor. Taylor will remain in custody pending sentencing, which has not been scheduled.
According to the plea agreement and other court records, on July 14, 2021, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a report from Dropbox identifying videos depicting suspected child pornography. On that date, Taylor uploaded 51 videos containing child pornography to a Dropbox account he created using the email address demonicanon666@protonmail.com. In his plea, Taylor acknowledged that he knew the videos included children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
On March 7, 2017, Taylor was convicted in Lovington District Court of possession of a visual medium of sexual exploitation of children and was required to register as a sex offender.
By the terms of the plea agreement, Taylor faces 25 to 30 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
The Roswell Resident Agency of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office investigated this case with assistance from the NCMEC. Assistant United States Attorney Matilda McCarthy Villalobos is prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.
# # #