Man sentenced to 2 years in prison for possession of child pornography

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Daniel Joseph Dickson, 39, was sentenced today to two years in state prison, followed by three years of sexual offender probation, after entering a plea of nolo contendere to two counts of possession of child pornography. The remaining charges were dropped as part of the plea bargain, and the plea bargain stated that Dickson was relying on federal charges also being dropped. Dickson will also be designated a Sexual Offender.

Dickson turned himself in on September 19, 2021, on 14 child pornography charges. The case was investigated by Gainesville Police Department (GPD) and began with the discovery of child exploitation material on the BitTorrent network. The BitTorrent file referenced 310 files, at least one of which was identified as a file that was “of investigative interest to child exploitation investigations.”

The investigators connected to the device hosting the file, and a download of 157 files was successfully completed on July 25, 2021. According to the original sworn complaint, 82 of the files involved pre-pubescent females, with 64 of those being child sexual abuse material. The other 75 images involved pubescent juvenile females or child erotica.

A check of the IP address of the device revealed that it belonged to Cox Communications and was subleased to a user in Gainesville. The subscriber was identified, and the owner’s son, Dickson, was arrested after a search warrant was executed.

Advertisement

Investigators found multiple images of child sexual abuse material on the hard drive of Dickson’s primary laptop, resulting in 12 charges of possession of sexual performance by a child and two counts of distribution of child exploitation material. The distribution charges were dropped as part of the plea deal.

7 Comments