Cincinnati man sentenced in Washington D.C. to 13 years for distributing child pornography
John Albertson, 33, of Cincinnati, was sentenced recently in U.S. District Court to 13 years in prison for sending an undercover FBI agent videos of adults sexually abusing prepubescent girls with the aim of making his own sexually exploitive videos so that he could “have fun and make xxx money.”
The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Scott of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division, and Chief Pamela A. Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Albertson entered a guilty plea Nov. 7, 2023, to one count of Distribution of Child Pornography. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Jia M. Cobb ordered Albertson to serve 15 years of supervised release and to pay $18,000 in restitution to the victims depicted in the child pornography.
According to court documents, on Aug. 9, 2023, Albertson joined an encrypted private messaging group on social media where members traded images of child sexual abuse. Albertson shared images of an adult man abusing a prepubescent girl, sending them to an undercover FBI agent working with Metropolitan Police Department-Federal Bureau of Investigation (MPD-FBI) Child Exploitation Task Force.
On Aug. 10, 2023, Albertson initiated a text conversation during which he invited the undercover agent to join another social media group focused on child pornography. Albertson and the undercover then exchanged messages in which Albertson sought a meeting with the undercover and his purported 8-year-old daughter for the purpose of sexually abusing the child and filming the abuse for the purpose of later selling it.
Following Albertson’s arrest in the Cincinnati suburb of Hebron, Ky., on Aug. 23, 2023, he was transported to the Washington D.C. area where he was indicted by a grand jury.
In seeking a 13-year sentence, the prosecution argued that Albertson had engaged in progressively more violent, disturbing and dangerous conduct over the past decade including a violent interaction with police in 2017 and engaging in sexual behavior in front of a child in 2021, prior to engaging in the conduct in this case.
This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department-Federal Bureau of Investigation (MPD-FBI) Child Exploitation Task Force. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney and Jocelyn Bond.
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