Virginia Nurse Sentenced for Disseminating CSAM Images of Young Children via Encrypted App
Published
- Nurse accusations: A nurse practitioner is charged with sending and receiving child sexual abuse media via the Session app.
- Prison sentence: The Virginia individual will spend over 7 years in prison for involvement in CSAM.
- Evading punishment: DOJ documents say he bragged about the effectiveness of his law enforcement detection evasion strategies.
A Virginia nurse practitioner was sentenced to 87 months in prison for distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The individual used the end-to-end encrypted messaging application “Session” to distribute and receive numerous videos and images depicting the sexual exploitation and rape of pre-teen boys.
Details of the Criminal Case
The sentencing of Lucas Fussell, 43, of Onley, Virginia, highlights the Justice Department's (DOJ) continued efforts to prosecute individuals who use encrypted technologies to commit and conceal crimes against children.
“The defendant, who occupied a position of trust as a nurse practitioner, used an end-to-end encrypted messaging application to disseminate images depicting the abuse of young children and bragged about the effectiveness of the measures that he used to evade law enforcement detection,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Fussell, who was arrested in July 2024, also discussed several of his male patients, including children, in his communications and boasted about his methods for evading law enforcement detection.
He pleaded guilty to the charges in December 2024. In addition to the prison term, Fussell was ordered to serve ten years of supervised release and pay a $20,000 fine.
Broader Implications of Online Exploitation Sentencing
This child sexual abuse material case underscores the commitment of law enforcement to penetrate sophisticated technological defenses used by offenders. The prosecution was part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, which recently resulted in a 10-year prison sentence for a repeat CSAM offender.
This online exploitation sentencing demonstrates that even with encrypted applications, law enforcement and specialized units like the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section's High Technology Investigative Unit can successfully bring offenders to justice.
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