70-Year-Old Man Gets Prison For Looking At Child Porn On Plane

TAMPA, FL — A 70-year-old Illinois man is headed to federal prison for five years after being caught viewing child pornography on a commercial flight to Florida.

U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber sentenced Donald Max Ingram for possessing and viewing images of children being sexually abused as he flew into St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport.

The court also ordered Ingram to turn over his electronic devices, serve a lifetime term of supervised release, register as a sex offender and pay $3,000 in restitution to the victims.

Ingram pleaded guilty on May 18.

According to court documents, on Sept. 14, 2020, Ingram was on board a domestic flight to Florida when another passenger saw him looking at child sex abuse images on his cellphone. The passenger alerted law enforcement when the plane landed at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport.

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Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office deputies assigned to the airport detained Ingram and requested assistance from the FBI. During an interview, Ingram admitted that he had used his cellphone to access and view child sex abuse images and consented to a search of his phone.

A forensic analysis of Ingram’s cellphone revealed that he possessed 59 images depicting children being sexually abused. Some images depicted children younger than 12 years old.