PEORIA, Ill. – A Varna, Illinois man, Brian M. Lord, 50, of the 1900 block of County Road 800 North, was sentenced on September 29, 2022, to six years in prison to be followed by 12 years of supervised release, for receipt of child pornography. Lord will also be required to register as a sex offender and pay a total of $24,000 in restitution to victims of his offense.
At the sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge James E. Shadid, the United States presented evidence that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a cyber tipline report from MeWe, an online social networking service, indicating 21 viewable images of child pornography were uploaded to an account connected to Lord. FBI agents obtained a search warrant for Lord’s house, car, and electronic devices. They found on Lord’s cell phone 161 images and 26 videos of child pornography, some of which depicted children as young as about two years old.
Lord was indicted on July 7, 2021, and pleaded guilty on May 26, 2022.
The statutory penalties for receipt of child pornography are 5 to 20 years imprisonment, 5 years to a lifetime of supervised release, up to a $250,000 fine, along with special assessments, and restitution to victims.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Springfield Field Office, was responsible for the investigation and Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Hollingshead-Cook represented the United States in the prosecution.
The case against Lord was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov.