Wilson’s trial is now scheduled to begin March 28, 2023 in Norfolk.
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A federal magistrate judge denied bond on Thursday for 34-year-old Jonathan Wilson. The decision comes after Wilson was charged with making child porn and putting it on the internet.
The alleged crimes involved a toddler who was under the age of four during the majority of the time in question.
Federal Magistrate Judge Douglas Miller said the case involved “some of the most serious charges I’ve ever seen”.
The indictment alleges eight counts of production of child pornography and one count of distributing it between August 2020 and Christmas 2021. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Yusi gave details she prefaced as “very disturbing”.
The prosecutor told the court that police seized multiple devices at Wilson’s apartment on Eden Way North when he was arrested in January, including about 1500 images of the alleged victim.
Wilson allegedly placed the images on the dark web and was communicating with a sex worker in Belgium who had viewed them. According to the prosecution, she was so disturbed by what she saw that she alerted authorities in that country. They traced the IP address of the images to Wilson’s computer.
Yusi also said that a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led federal authorities to investigate and they too traced the images to Wilson’s computer.
Yusi said the images clearly show Wilson and the alleged victim. She also said that Wilson was on a sexually explicit chat with a 15-year-old girl who lives outside Virginia, in the hour before police knocked on his door.
Miller agreed to classify it as a “complex case”, meaning that it would take longer than average for the prosecution and defense to prepare. Wilson’s jury trial was originally scheduled to begin October 25, but a motion to continue was granted and the trial is now scheduled for March 28, 2023.
A conviction on a federal charge of the production of child pornography would carry a minimum prison term of 15 years, and up to 30 years, on each charge.
