Wake County Man Sentenced to more than 17 Years in Prison for Child Pornography Charges

RALEIGH, N.C. – A Wake County man was sentenced yesterday to 210 months imprisonment followed by 20 years of supervised release for transporting and possessing child pornography.  Spencer Charles Thomas Crocker, 23, of Cary, North Carolina pleaded guilty on February 16, 2022 to the charges. 

According to court documents and other information presented in court, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received twelve Cyber Tips regarding the uploading of child pornography to Google accounts.  The IP address was being leased to Crocker’s father with an associated address in Cary.  Other information included with the Cyber Tips led law enforcement to believe the person uploading the child sexual abuse material was Crocker.

Law enforcement received a search warrant for the Google account associated with the Cyber Tips.  Within the Google account, they found more than 2,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse material.  They identified the account belonged to Crocker by photos of himself and various receipts for online purchases with his information included within that account. 

Based on evidence from the Google account, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Crocker’s residence.  Crocker was present when the search warrant was executed and admitted he was intentionally seeking out child pornography on the dark web.  Law enforcement learned Crocker had Mega, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive accounts and executed search warrants for content of all the accounts.  They discovered over 4,500 additional images and videos of child sexual abuse material in those accounts. 

Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after the sentencing was concluded.  U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III presided over the sentencing.  Cary Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Charity Wilson prosecuted the case.

Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case No. 5:21-CR-00429-D.