Nashville Child Pornographer Sentenced To 55 Years

NASHVILLE, TN — A Nashville man will spend 55 years in prison for producing and transporting child pornography. Chief U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw sentenced Damion Faulkner, 34, Monday.

“The sentence imposed by the Court reflects the atrocious actions of the defendant and society’s need to punish the offender and insure that no other innocent children will become a victim of his perverted sexual desires,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Jack Smith said.

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A grand jury indicted Faulkner on 15 counts of production, receipt, possession and transportation of child pornography in 2015. He pleaded guilty to all counts in September 2016.

“Detectives Mike Adkins and Chad Gish conducted an exhaustive investigation of Faulkner, which led to associates in a number of other states.” Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson said. “Thanks to their work, a child porn distribution network is no more.”

Beginning in July 2013, Faulkner produced a pornographic video and still images of a 5-year old girl and another pre-pubescent girl who were staying at the residence where Faulkner lived. Some of the images and the video depicted Faulkner sexually molesting the 5-year old as she slept. Faulkner subsequently distributed the images and video of the girl to at least 10 different individuals and possibly many more.

In emails recovered by detectives, Faulkner discussed his sexual attraction to young girls, offered advice on how to groom a young girl in preparation for engaging in sex, and also discussed his molestation of another prepubescent girl in years past.

Detectives found 3,745 images depicting child pornography and 103 videos, most of which were of pre-pubescent girls, some as young as toddlers.

The investigation began in late 2013 when an investigator with the Vancouver, Wash. Police Department Digital Evidence Cybercrime Unit discovered that an individual using a specific email address was trading images depicting the sexual exploitation of children with another individual under investigation by the same unit. Further investigation indicated that the individual using this email address was located in Nashville. The MNPD was able to identify the individual using that email address as Damion Faulkner.

As a result of that investigation, 12 other people were charged with child pornography crimes.

Image via MNPD