Ex-NC Marine sentenced to 12-years for child sexual abuse material

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A former North Carolina-based Marine was sentenced to 144 months in prison followed by 5 years of supervised release, and $273,000 in restitution to 29 victims, for receipt of voluminous child sexual abuse material, the US Department of Justice said Friday.

According to court documents and other information presented in court,

The Naval Criminal Investigative Services began investigating Paul Anthony Reyes, 23, after Instagram reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that one of its users had uploaded contraband to its platform.

The IP address used to upload the illegal content was linked to Reyes, who was an active duty Marine stationed at Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point.

ALSO SEE | Boone man sentenced 8 years in prison after using dark web to access child porn

According to court records, NCIS agents executed a search warrant on the Instagram account, which showed that Reyes "was willing to trade and distribute child pornography material to other Instagram users."

After executing a search warrant on Reyes and his barracks, agents seized numerous digital devices that were found to contain thousands of images and videos of child pornography. Many of them depicted sadistic and masochistic conduct. Reyes also had multiple images and videos depicting the rape and abuse of infants and toddlers, according to court documents.

The case 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 DOJ.