A Mississippi man who was found to be accessing sexually explicit images of minors online will spend more than 7 years in federal prison.

Darryl Wayne Griffin, Sr., 55, of Carriere, Mississippi, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden to 87 months in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for accessing with intent to view visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, announced U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst and Christopher Freeze, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Mississippi. Griffin was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, $3,000 in restitution, and a $5,000 special assessment under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015.

In January 2018, an electronic service provider identified internet protocol uploads by an account user of child sexual abuse imagery.

After the images were received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the FBI conducted an investigation into the email and user name associated with the account.

Thereafter, a federal search warrant was executed at the residence of Darryl Wayne Griffin, Sr. A subsequent forensic examination of Griffin’s cell phone revealed the defendant had accessed with intent to view numerous images of minors, to include those under 12 years of age, engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

On December 12, 2018, Griffin was charged in a federal criminal indictment. He pled guilty before Judge Ozerden on February 26, 2019.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Jones. It was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.

Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.