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A Wake County man was sentenced October 13, 2022 to 210 months in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release for transporting and possessing child pornography. Spencer Charles Thomas Crocker, 23, of Cary, pleaded guilty to the charges on February 16, 2022.

According to court documents and other information presented in court, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 12 cyber tips regarding the uploading of child pornography to Google accounts.

“The IP address was being leased to Crocker’s father with an associated address in Cary,” stated the release. “Other information included with the Cyber Tips led law enforcement to believe the person uploading the child sexual abuse material was Crocker.”

Law enforcement received a search warrant for the Google account associated with the cyber tips. “Within the Google account, they found more than 2,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse material,” stated the release. “They identified the account belonged to Crocker by photos of himself and various receipts for online purchases with his information included within that account.”

Based on evidence from the Google account, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Crocker’s residence. “Crocker was present when the search warrant was executed and admitted he was intentionally seeking out child pornography on the dark web,” the release continued. “Law enforcement learned Crocker had Mega, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive accounts and executed search warrants for content of all the accounts. They discovered over 4,500 additional images and videos of child sexual abuse material in those accounts.”

Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, made the announcement after the sentencing was concluded. U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III presided over the sentencing.  The Cary Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Charity Wilson prosecuted.

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