Peter Allen Snyder, a 43-year-old resident of Smyrna, Tennessee, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison following his guilty plea to charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and distribution of child pornography. The announcement was made by Robert E. McGuire, Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. In addition to his prison sentence, Snyder is required to register as a sex offender.
Acting United States Attorney Robert E. McGuire emphasized the importance of prosecuting crimes against children, stating, "One of our office’s highest priorities is the aggressive prosecution of crimes against children. We will seek to hold these criminals accountable in order to protect the most vulnerable members of our community."
Court records reveal that on November 21, 2019, Snyder created at least nine sexually explicit images of a minor victim using his cell phone. These images depicted the victim naked from the waist down and included Snyder's hand in one image. He later distributed these photographs via the internet.
The case came to light in December 2021 when Yahoo submitted a CyberTip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material. This CyberTip contained twenty-five images, including those involving the minor victim, which had been sent from a Russian-based email service with the subject header "Trade."
The GPS data from the images confirmed they were produced near Snyder's residence in Cannon County and provided information about the cell phone used for creating them. Upon questioning after his arrest, Snyder claimed he had disposed of this cell phone at a recycling kiosk.
Following his prison term, Snyder will be on supervised release for life.
The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and the Woodbury Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica R. Morrison prosecuted the case.