Carroll County Man Sentenced to 21 Years for Possession and Distribution of Child Pornography

Jackson, TN – Having been found guilty following a 3-day jury trial in September 2020, William Farrell Russell, 47, has now been sentenced to 262 months in federal prison for possession and distribution of child pornography depicting the sexual abuse of children under twelve years of age. Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph C. Murphy Jr., announced the sentence today.

According to information presented in court, investigators with the Faulkner County, Arkansas, Sheriff’s Department learned that a user of an instant messaging service was distributing child pornography under the screen name "funfortaboo." Between July 1 and July 7, 2016, funfortaboo distributed to the undercover investigator’s images of child sexual abuse. The Faulkner County, Arkansas investigators and members of the FBI Project Safe Childhood Task Force for the Western District of Tennessee, identified "funfortaboo" as William Farrell Russell, who was then living in Cedar Grove, TN.

On July 28, 2016, members of the FBI Project Safe Childhood Task Force executed a search warrant at Russell's Cedar Grove home, and recovered the cellular telephone that Russell used to distribute the child sexual abuse materials. On that telephone and in an online cloud storage account, Russell possessed hundreds of images and videos of child sexual abuse, including the images that he distributed to the undercover officers under the screen name funfortaboo.

That same day, Russell waived his Miranda rights and admitted to using the cellular telephone to send images of child sexual abuse.

On May 18, 2021, Chief U.S. District Judge S. Thomas Anderson sentenced Russell to 262 months in federal prison to be followed by lifetime supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

The FBI Project Safe Childhood Task Force and Faulkner County, Arkansas Sheriff’s Office investigated this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gregory Allen and Lauren Delery prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

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