Edmonton Canada Police Service -- Alberta Provincial Integrated Child Exploitation Unit in Alberta, Canada, contacted the Texas Attorney General's Office (OAG) in October 2006 after receiving a complaint from a social networking site that an adult user had threatened to travel to Canada and shoot a teenage girl's friends unless she disrobed on webcam for him. Adkins e-mailed a link to the coerced pictures of the teen to other users of the site.
Acting on the information provided by Canadian authorities, investigators of the OAG Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force took additional investigatory steps to secure the information which ultimately led to the identification of Adkins as the online predator and his residence on Twopenny Lane in Houston.
In January 2007, a state search warrant was executed by OAG investigators, Houston Police Department officers and Harris County Sheriff's deputies at Adkins' residence.
Investigators seized five computers and external media including seven hard drives and numerous CDs and DVDs. A forensic examination of the computers and external media by OAG forensic examiners resulted in the discovery of the photographs of the Canadian teen and more than 10,000 images and movies of child pornography, including images of adults sexually assaulting prepubescent females and toddlers.
A federal grand jury in Houston indicted Adkins on December 17, 2007. He was arrested the following day and has been in federal custody without bond since his arrest.
For the sexual exploitation of a child conviction, Judge Hoyt sentenced Adkins to 235 months incarceration and a lifetime of supervised release upon release, including conditions imposed to ensure the safety of the victim, while he received 120 months for the possession of child pornography conviction. The court has ordered Adkins serve the sentences concurrently.
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