Jacksonville man pleads guilty to receiving child porn

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 61-year-old Jacksonville man has pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography over the Internet.

John Lester was arrested in December.

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Lester faces five to 20 years in federal prison and a potential life term of supervised release. A sentencing hearing has not yet been set.

According to court documents, an FBI agent in Jacksonville began an investigation to identify individuals that had access to and were trading images and videos depicting child pornography over the Internet.

The agent determined that a computer using a particular Internet protocol address in the Jacksonville area was hosting images of child pornography using a file sharing program.

The agent made a connection to the computer through the Internet and downloaded several video files directly from the computer.

Each of the videos depicted young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. 

Further investigation revealed that the IP address came back to Lester's Jacksonville home.

According to court documents, on Dec. 10, FBI agents and other law enforcement officers executed a federal search warrant at Lester's home and seized, among other things, four computers and several hundred CDs.

During an interview with law enforcement, Lester said he had been downloading child pornography for about five years and had developed a curiosity for it.

Lester also said he was worried about possibly wanting to touch a child.

A subsequent forensic analysis of the computers used by Lester revealed that they contained a total of 261 videos and 844 images depicting child pornography.