A convicted sex offender, Jesse Thomas Cunningham, has been sentenced to 37 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for producing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The announcement was made by Lawrence J. Cameron, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Cunningham, aged 30 from Morven, N.C., is also required to register as a sex offender upon his release.
The sentencing follows an investigation involving multiple agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), and the Anson County Sheriff’s Office. These agencies collaborated with Acting U.S. Attorney Cameron on this case.
Court documents reveal that in 2021, Cunningham assumed a minor's identity on Snapchat to communicate with an 11-year-old girl. He persuaded her to send sexually explicit images and videos via Snapchat. Furthermore, he accessed her account to coerce two other minor females into sending similar content.
A search warrant executed on December 7, 2021, led law enforcement to discover CSAM on Cunningham’s phone during a forensic examination. Evidence indicated that he threatened to expose the victims online if they did not comply with his demands for more material. His criminal history includes convictions for possessing obscenity with intent to disseminate, attempting extortion, felony secret peeping, and indecent liberties with a child.
Cunningham pleaded guilty on October 11, 2024, and will remain in federal custody until transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick J. Miller prosecuted the case which is part of Project Safe Childhood—a Justice Department initiative launched in May 2006 aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse through collaboration among federal, state, and local resources.