A St. Croix man has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison for possession of child sexual abuse material, U.S. Attorney Adam F. Sleeper announced in a press release.
John Paul Cunningham, 31, was sentenced Monday by Senior District Judge Wilma A. Lewis to 84 months of imprisonment, followed by 15 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment. Restitution will be determined at a later date, according to the press release.
According to court documents, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cyber tip line received information on or about May 5, 2020, from Google Inc. regarding a Gmail account user on St. Croix who was viewing or uploading what appeared to be child sexual exploitation material. Google provided subscriber information, including the account owner’s name and contact numbers, which investigators said identified Cunningham.
Homeland Security Investigations learned Cunningham was traveling from St. Croix to the mainland and made contact with him on June 9, 2020, at Henry E. Rohlsen Airport, according to the release. After Cunningham consented to a search, agents examined his cellphone Google cloud account and found thousands of images of child sexual abuse material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to the documents.
The images were produced using materials mailed, shipped, or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, and Cunningham knew the visual depictions involved minors, according to the documents.
