More News

A Silver Spring man was sentenced Monday to five years in prison, followed by supervised release for life, for receiving child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland.

John P. Tankisley, 60, used the credit card processing services of an unnamed source to pay for access to a child pornography website in February 2008, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office press release sent out Monday.

Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Tankisley's home and seized two computers that contained more than 100 image files and more than 30 video files of child pornography on May 6, 2009, according to the release.

Tankisley admitted that he had purchased access to child pornography websites, and further investigation revealed that he paid for access to website and newsgroups known to trade in child pornography multiple times between 2006 and 2008, according to the release.

The significance of the case is that the people paying for child pornography online give the pornographers an incentive to keep producing it, said Rod J. Rosenstein, state's attorney for the District of Maryland.

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 May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice, according to the release.

Richard P. Arnold, the defense attorney for Tankisley, did not immediately return a message left by The Gazette on Tuesday afternoon.

abryant@gazette.net