An Escambia County white male has been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison after previously pleading guilty to online receipt of child pornography.
Donovan Eugene Whidden, 21, was sentenced last week.
In September 2023, authorities received cybertips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that led back to Whidden’s residence. Law enforcement was aware that the pedophile was on state court probation for a conviction for Promoting Sexual performance by a child in 2022. A search warrant was obtained for his residence, and law enforcement located evidence of the peckerwood utilizing the media platform Discord to upload and obtain child pornography. The white devil also used a cloud storage platform to maintain his child pornography.
“Protecting innocent children from sexual predators remains one of our highest priorities,” said U.S. Attorney Jason R. Coody. “I commend our law enforcement partners and prosecutors who work tirelessly to identify these predators and bring them to justice so that they may never exploit a child again. Due to their collective efforts, our community is safer, and this repeat offender is exactly where he belongs – behind bars.”
Whidden’s prison sentence will be followed by 10 years of supervised release, and he will be required to register as a sex offender and will be subject to all sex offender conditions.
