Fulton man sentenced after lost cell phone contained multiple images of child pornography

Timothy Garrison, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced on Tuesday that a Fulton man was sentenced in federal court for receiving and distributing child pornography after his lost cell phone, which contained images of child pornography, was turned in to law enforcement.

Anthony Hodges, 51, was sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison without parole.

Hodges pled guilty on May 9 to viewing child pornography from a variety of websites for approximately two to three years and storing the images on his Google Photos account.

In January, two Fulton residents turned in the phone after they found it abandoned in their driveway. Prior to turning it in, the residents turned on the phone to try and identify its owner but found images of child pornography.

Investigators searched through the phone and found pornographic images of children as well as links to alleged child pornography websites.

Hodges also admitted to sending unsolicited images of child pornography to an individual. The individual reported he received images of young females from Hodges on several occasions. The individual allegedly told Hodges to stop sending him child pornography.

Garrison said Hodges was already under investigation at the time his phone was turned in. On Oct. 24, 2016, a Boone County Cyber Crimes Taskforce detective received a top from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Google had filed a complaint about Hodges, who uploaded images of child pornography to Google Photos.

Hodges is currently in the Cole County Jail.