ATLANTA — A man who had already been convicted and served time for having child porn has been sentenced again - for the exact same crime.
Federal prosecutors announced Michael Frost, 49, was sentenced again for possessing child pornography, including images of children as young as seven.
According to prosecutors, investigators were led to Frost while they were conducting an undercover operation on the dark web, an "area on the Internet where illegal content is uploaded and shared."
Investigators said they spotted an IP address that had downloaded child pornography connected to a Cumming, Georgia home. Investigators went to the home to interview the residents there; they said they were not the ones who downloaded the explicit images, but they pointed them to someone else - Frost.
The residents told agents Frost would come over to the home often and use his personal laptop to use the Internet.
When agents obtained a search warrant for Frost's Atlanta address, they seized several electronics which reportedly contained tens of thousands of images and videos of children engaged in explicit acts.
Federal investigators said it was clear Frost did not learn his lesson the first time around.
"Frost made a decision to go back to victimizing children even though he has already been jailed once for it," said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. "Child pornography is disgusting and it is a second victimization of a child who has already been traumatized."
“If he thought he could hide behind the dark web, he was wrong," added FBI Special Agent Chris Hacker. "Now Frost will serve several more years in prison where he won’t be able to victimize any more children.”
Frost had been previously convicted in 2002 in federal court of possessing child pornography and served about three years in federal prison. He was convicted again after pleading guilty to these new charges in July and sentenced Oct. 24 to serve another 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release. In addition, he will have to pay a $5,100 special assessment and $20,000 in restitution to victims. He will also have to register as a sex offender for life.
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