News Releases

Registered sex offender sentenced to 27 years for transportation of child pornography

MIAMI - St. Petersburg, Fla., resident Scott David Stuckey was sentenced today in West Palm Beach, Fla., by U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks to 27 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for transportation of child pornography.

On Jan. 14, ICE special agents in Tampa, Fla., and state law enforcement conducted an Internet investigation into the trafficking of child pornography via peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. During this investigation, law enforcement successfully downloaded child pornography images being offered by Stuckey via this file sharing program.

On Jan. 15, ICE special agents aided by the Attorney General's Cyber Crimes Unit, executed a search warrant at Stuckey's residence in St. Petersburg, where they located additional amounts of child pornography on his computer. Stuckey is a registered sex offender, having been convicted of committing a prior lewd and lascivious act in the presence of a child.

This investigation is part of ICE's Operation Predator, a nationwide initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who sexually exploit children, and the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006, which 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.

As part of Operation Predator, ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.

The investigation was conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations in Tampa, the Florida Attorney General's Office, Cyber Crimes Unit, the Palm Beach State Attorney's Office and the Boynton Beach Police Department.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rinku Tribuiani and Carmen Lineberger.