Child Porn Website Lands Gwinnett Man In Prison

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA — A Gwinnett County man will spend at least 20 years in prison for running a website used to spread child pornography.

Thomas Scot Edvalson, 28, was convicted by a Superior Court jury Wednesday on 22 counts of sexual exploitation of children.

According to testimony and evidence in the case, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a website containing nude images of children had been traced to an address in Gwinnett County.

The information had been obtained from the website's host, GoDaddy, where an employee noticed the inappropriate content.

The website's information, along with some pictures from the site, was forwarded to Gwinnett County Police for investigation.

Investigators determined that Edvalson provided the site for other users to download images of child pornography.

The site contained an online guide for how to use the "dark Web" to set up a website for trading images of child porn.

A search warrant executed on Edvalson's residence "revealed computers rife with images of child sexual abuse," Gwinnett County prosecutors said.

The jury only deliberated for an hour Wednesday before finding Edvalson guilty on all counts against him.

Superior Court Judge George F. Hutchinson, III sentenced him to 60 years, with the first 20 to be served in confinement. He will also spend the rest of his life as a registered sex offender.

“Each time images of child pornography are shared on the internet, that child is being victimized again,” Hutchinson said during sentencing.

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