PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — A radiology technician living in Ponte Vedra Beach has been charged with distributing child pornography and faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
George Thomas Griffiths, Jr., 41, was arrested on Wednesday.
According to the criminal complaint, an FBI task force officer in Wisconsin began an undercover investigation using a social media app to identify individuals attempting to sexually exploit children using the internet.
From Feb. 3, 2020, through Feb. 20, 2020, an individual user named “ban_me_again” reportedly uploaded several videos featuring children being sexually abused to a chat room on the app.
Further investigation traced these videos to Griffiths’ residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, and to his place of employment in Jacksonville, where Griffiths worked as a radiology technician, according to a DOJ news release.
The complaint suggests that Griffiths worked at Crucial Care located at 11048 Baymeadows Rd. He was an X-Ray/CT Technician, the complaint says.
An examination of Griffiths’ iPhone reportedly revealed that it contained at least 2,000 images, and at least 10 videos, depicting child sexual abuse. Many of these images and videos depicted infants, toddlers and prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
A criminal complaint is only an allegation and every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty, the DOJ release says.
