Tyler Watson

A Bloomington man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison followed by lifetime supervised release for production and possession of child pornography.

Tyler Watson, 21, was sentenced during his Feb. 28 court appearance before U.S. District Judge James Shadid to two counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

Watson pleaded guilty to the charges Aug. 19 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Hawley.

According to admissions made as part of his guilty plea, Watson came to the attention of the Bloomington Police Department while home on leave from active duty in the U.S. Navy. Information from an acquaintance of Watson’s led police officers to discover sexually explicit pictures Watson had taken of a 6-year-old boy on Watson’s cellphone, as well as other child pornography images.

Watson was subsequently interrogated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and admitted to possessing, distributing and producing child pornography. A forensic examination of his electronic media subsequently revealed that he had communicated with and received sexually explicit images from other minors via the internet.

The Bloomington Police Department and NCIS conducted the investigation, with assistance from the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section’s Hi-Tech Investigative Unit and the FBI.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

For information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc<http://www.justice.gov/psc.

The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the Department of Justice. Learn about the history of the agency at www.Justice.gov/Celebrating150Years.