A Gainesville man who officials said provided other people with pornographic images of him molesting two young girls is headed to federal prison.
Michael Cannon, 34, was sentenced to 27 years in prison, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Bob Page said Thursday. He pleaded guilty to the charges in June 2014. It was not clear why there was a nearly three-year gap between the guilty plea and the sentence.
In December 2012, Cannon posted several images of a 10-year-old girl on a foreign website, Page said. At least one of the pictures was pornographic.
Several people posted comments on Cannon’s photos and asked Cannon about trading pictures, Page said. He provided his email address and later sent the people explicit photos that showed him molesting two young girls.
Cannon also received emails that contained images and videos of other children being sexually abused, Page said.
“This defendant not only molested two young girls living in his household, he further victimized them by recording his sexual abuse and then posting the images on the internet,” U.S. Attorney John Horn said.
The girls were removed from Cannon’s household.
Cannon’s prison term will be followed by a lifetime of supervised release, Page said. There’s no parole in the federal system.
The case was investigated by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.
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