Canadian Man Pleads Guilty to Receiving Child Pornography in Jacksonville

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JACKSONVILLE, FL—Christian Yvon Lapierre(46, a Canadian citizen residing in Jacksonville) pled guilty in U.S. DistrictCourt today to receiving child pornography over the Internet. Lapierre faces amandatory minimum sentence of at least five years and up to 20 years in federalprison, a $250,000 fine, and a potential life term of supervised release.
According to court documents, aninvestigator with the Florida Attorney General’s Office conducted an undercoveroperation to identify individuals using the Internet to share childpornography. The investigator was able to identify an Internet protocol (IP) addresslocated in Jacksonville that was sharing files depicting child pornography.Subpoenaed documents later revealed that the Internet service account for thisIP address resolved to Lapierre’s Jacksonville residence.
On June 14, 2011, a federal search warrantwas executed at Lapierre’s residence. Law enforcement officers seized twocomputers and other digital media. Lapierre was inside the residence when thesearch warrant was executed. During an interview, he admitted that he was theone who downloaded the files, using the particular software program, and thathe had some videos showing kids, as well as some “teen stuff.” Lapierreadmitted using particular terms to search for child pornography and that hedownloaded videos which contained mostly girls and reaffirmed that he “wouldpretty much just look at them and then get rid of them.” Lapierre stated thathe would get rid of the videos by deleting them into the computer’s recyclingbin because he did not want them on his computer. He also stated that he starteddeleting the files when he heard the FBI knock and announce themselves at thedoor. Lapierre believed that one of the videos that he deleted depicted a childhaving sex with an adult.
Subsequent forensic analysis revealedthat Lapierre’s computer media contained five videos and one image depictingchild pornography.
This case was investigated by theFederal Bureau of Investigation, the former Child Predator Cybercrime Unit ofthe Florida Attorney General’s Office, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service,the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.
This case was brought as part of ProjectSafe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Departmentof Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation andabuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’sChild Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal,state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals whosexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For moreinformation about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc andfor more information about Internet safety education, please visitwww.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”