The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

A 32-year-old Orange man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for child pornography violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales today.

Jason Ryan Bickham pleaded guilty on Sep. 17, 2014 to possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison today by U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield.

According to information presented in court, law enforcement authorities were alerted by a citizen that Bickham had images containing child pornography on his cellular phone. Bickham provided officers consent to search the phone and a forensic analysis revealed multiple images and videos of child pornography. Bickham was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 4, 2014.

This 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 Department of Justice. Led by United States 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.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Orange Police Department and the Beaumont Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall L. Fluke.