Macon man sentenced to 20 years after assuming identity of 12-year-old girl online to distribute child porn
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — A 27-year-old Macon man, Anthony Sparks Brown, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after using a fake identity online to force a middle school girl to create child sexual abuse material, which he sold online.
The release from the Department of Justice says that Brown’s exploitation of a middle schooler came to light thanks to a cybertip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited children. GBI agents found the defendant, and freed the child from Brown’s escalating online threats.
Court documents say the GBI received a cybertip in January of 2019 concerning a report from Facebook detailing child sexual abuse material between 2 Facebook users– a middle school aged female (who the release calls Jane Doe) , and a 57-year-old man. Investigation revealed that Brown was using the account of the Jane Doe to possess, distribute, and sell child sexual abuse material.
Brown had previously met the real Jane Doe, who was a 12-year-old girl from Tennessee, on Instagram in 2018. According to Brown, she sent him nude images that he later used to threaten her in order to gain control of her Facebook login information, saying that he would show the images to her parents if she didn’t give him her login information. Later that day, Brown began soliciting sexual images and videos from the girl, using threats to coerce sexually exploitative images and videos from her that he would later distribute and sell. Brown also admitted to chatting with her friends and family through her account on Facebook.
Brown is sentenced to serve 240 months in prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release as well as registering as a sex offender for life. This comes after Brown pleaded guilty to the distribution of child pornography.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to put a stop to child sexual exploitation and abuse. For more information, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov
