Jacksonville, Florida – U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced Patrick Joseph McAloon (67, St. Augustine) to 7 years and 2 months in federal prison for distributing videos and images of children being sexually abused. The court also ordered McAloon serve a 10-year term of supervised release and pay $15,000 to victims of his offenses. McAloon had pleaded guilty on July 28, 2022.
According to court documents, in November 2021, agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) received information from two individuals who had found a cellphone in a public restroom at a home improvement store in St. Augustine. The individuals turned the phone on in an attempt to determine the owner and return the phone. Upon viewing the phone’s photo gallery, they observed an image of a child who appeared to be 3 years old being sexually assaulted by an adult male. The individuals observed hundreds of additional files showing children being sexually abused. Soon after, the found phone rang and it was McAloon, requesting the return of his phone. When the individuals confronted McAloon about the abusive content, he claimed it was a wake-up call and offered the individuals $2,000 for the return of his phone. McAloon met with the individuals, paid them $2,000, and retrieved the phone. The individuals later contacted law enforcement to report the incident.
After a thorough investigation, HSI agents made contact with McAloon. He reported that he had since obtained a new phone and said that he is in touch with an individual in the Philippines to whom he sends money and who sends McAloon files showing the sexual abuse of children. McAloon acknowledged that there was probably child sexual abuse material on his new phone.
A forensic search of McAloon’s cellphone, which was seized by agents, yielded at least 194 files of child sexual abuse material and more than 450 files of child exploitation/age difficult material. Forensic analyses revealed that McAloon used a social media app to distribute child sexual abuse material, to include a video file he had sent to a certain app user on December 5, 2021, using username “Patrick,” depicting an adult male sexually abusing a young child.
“This predator fed his perversion through a steady stream of explicit imagery and videos of children being sexually abused,” said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Jacksonville Assistant Special Agent in Charge K. Jim Phillips. “Thanks to the dedication of our special agents and the concern of citizens who discovered the imagery, justice is served. Our communities are made safer for children when citizens recognize deviant behaviors and reach out to law enforcement.”
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). It was being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kelly S. Karase.
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.