Fulton man pleads guilty to child porn after cell phone was found

A Fulton man pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to receiving and distributing child pornography after his lost cell phone, which contained images of child pornography, was turned in to law enforcement.

Anthony Quin Hodges, 51, of Fulton, admitted that he had been viewing child pornography from a variety of websites for two to three years and storing the images on his Google Photos account.

Two Fulton residents turned in the phone, which Hodges said had been lost or stolen, to the Fulton Police Department on Jan. 17, 2017, after they found it abandoned in their driveway.

Hodges also admitted to sending unsolicited images of child pornography to an individual. The individual was interviewed by investigators said that he did not solicit these images, and repeatedly told Hodges to stop sending him child pornography.

Hodges was already under investigation at the time his cell phone was turned in to law enforcement. On Oct. 24, 2016, a Boone County Cyber Crimes Taskforce detective received a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Hodges could face up to a sentence of 20 years in federal prison without parole.