FRESNO -  Steven Dale Jones, 43, of Fresno, was sentenced today to 11 and a half years in prison by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd for receipt and distribution of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

The sentence imposed includes a term of supervised release of 20 years during which Jones’s access to minors, computers, and the internet will be restricted. He will also be required to register as a sex offender. The court has scheduled a hearing for June 27, 2022, to address restitution to victims.

According to court documents, Jones was detected by law enforcement investigators when he was sharing numerous child pornography files on a BitTorrent file-sharing network in December 2016. He admitted to investigating agents that he had used file-sharing programs for several years to obtain child pornography. He admitted in court, when pleading guilty, that between January 2012 and April 2017, he used a BitTorrent program and the TOR network to search for and download thousands of images of child pornography.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.