District Man Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison For Child Exploitation

            WASHINGTON – Jason Tipton, 36, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to seven years in prison for distribution of child pornography. Tipton pleaded guilty on October 11, 2022.

            According to court documents, after identifying Tipton, law enforcement arrested him in April 2020. During execution of a search warrant at his residence, various digital devices were seized. The partial extraction of his cellphone revealed a series of hyperlinks in a “Notes” section on the phone.  A subsequent search of the defendant’s iCloud account revealed these same hyperlinks, which contained over 200 videos depicting the sexual abuse of very young children.  Several of these videos depict victims known to law enforcement, who have been identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as victims depicted in series of child sexual abuse material that is widely traded. The defendant admitted that he had several KIK accounts, all of which he deleted, that he used to trade images depicting the sexual abuse of young children. He admitted to sending pictures of a child relative to strangers that he met over the internet, who had expressed a sexual attraction to children. He admitted that he took pictures of a child sleeping and that he sent those pictures to other individuals he met online. 

            In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden ordered $21,000 in restitution to the victim, 10 years of supervised release, and ordered Tipton to register as a sex offender for 25 years.

            This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. The task force is composed of FBI agents, along with other federal agents and detectives from northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. The task force is charged with investigating and bringing federal charges against individuals engaged in the exploitation of children and those engaged in human trafficking.

            In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, FBI Special Agent in Charge Wayne Jacobs, of the Washington Field Office’s Criminal and Cyber Division, and Chief Robert J. Contee, III, of the Metropolitan Police Department commended the work of the FBI agents and MPD detectives. They also expressed appreciation to those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Victim/Witness Advocate Yvonne Bryant, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Larson, who investigated and prosecuted the case.

            This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.