NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A partial guilty plea in federal court for a local man accused of producing child pornography.
In federal court Thursday, Jonathan Wilson pleaded guilty to two charges of producing child pornography.
Wilson’s case is described as one of the most disturbing by a federal magistrate. His case allegedly stretched halfway around the world through the dark web.
Wilson was arrested in January on similar state charges after Chesapeake police searched his home on Eden Way North. Those 10 state charges have been set aside, and his case will now be in federal court.
Wilson faced nine federal charges, including eight counts of producing child pornography and one count of distributing it.
According to the indictment, Wilson produced child pornography on eight occasions from August 2020 until December 2021.
During a bond hearing, the Assistant U.S. Attorney, Elizabeth Yusi, said the details in the case were “very disturbing.”
She revealed police seized multiple devices from his apartment with about 1,500 images of the alleged victim. Wilson also allegedly placed the images on the dark web.
The alleged crimes involved a toddler who was under the age of four during the majority of the time in question.
Belgium authorities traced Wilson’s IP address to the images after a sex worker he communicated with alerted authorities. The prosecutor said the woman was so disturbed by what she saw.
A tip by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led federal authorities to investigate Wilson, which again traced the images back to Wilson’s computer.
Yusi also said Wilson was in a sexually explicit chat with an underage girl an hour before police knocked on his door.
He accepted a plea deal from the U.S. Attorney, which had a recommendation of a 36-year sentencing cap. Yusi said in court there were two other plea agreements. Each had higher sentencing caps.
Wilson is set to be sentenced on May 16th.