Lincoln man convicted of possession of child pornography

LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska) – A Lincoln man was convicted of possession of child pornography after a jury trial on Wednesday.

John Wade Burton, 66, of Lincoln, was convicted by jury for possession of child pornography, officials said. Due to a previous conviction, Burton faces a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years. There is no parole in the federal system.

Burton’s sentencing hearing will take place on May 15, 2023.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation received a tip from a foreign law enforcement agency that a computer with Lincoln’s IP address had visited a child pornography site twice. Further investigation revealed that the IP address had been assigned to Burton’s residence. A search warrant for Burton’s home was received and executed on November 17, 2020. Agents seized several computers, hard drives and flash drives found throughout the home. Later analysis of these devices showed that they contained images and videos of child pornography. In total, more than 1,000 such images and videos have been discovered.

Officials said the defendant had a prior conviction in Missouri for sexually abusing a child under the age of 14. He was sentenced to prison for this crime and was in custody from February 15, 2007 to February 14, 2018. A computer expert hired by the defense testified that the metadata on the two devices showed that someone had viewed some of the child pornography files in while John Burton was in custody.

The defense also presented testimonies from several victims that another person, whom the defense believed had access to the devices, had sexually abused children in the past. However, the metadata on most of the devices showed that child pornography files were created or modified from time to time, either before Burton was taken into custody in Missouri or after he was released.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of the Nebraska State Patrol and the Sarpi County Sheriff’s Department.

The case was brought under the Safe Childhood Project, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. The Safe Childhood Project, led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Criminal Division’s Division of Child Exploitation and Obscenity, uses federal, state, and local resources to better identify, apprehend, and prosecute online child exploiters and to identifying and rescuing victims. .

For more information about the Safe Childhood Project, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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