A San Antonio man has been sentenced to 8 years in prison for uploading sexually explicit photos of children via his email account.
Anthony Speller, 49, was charged with 60 counts of possession of child pornography, a third degree felony. A tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led law enforcement to Speller, who was accused of not only uploading the images but also manipulating images by superimposing a child’s face onto nude adult female bodies. In all, investigators found thousands of images across multiple electronic devices. Speller pled guilty to the crime in May. He was sentenced Monday in the 144th District Court.
“This defendant wasn’t just looking at these images, he was creating new ones. While many think of this as a victimless crime, the reality is these horrible images of children are shared repeatedly for years. Our children do not deserve to have their privacy violated,” said Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales.
Assistant District Attorney Oscar Salinas of the Public Integrity and Cyber Crime Division prosecuted this case. The office of the Texas Attorney General’s Child Exploitation Unit investigated the crime.