KNOXVILLE, Tenn.- On February 20, 2018, John Langsdon Overstreet, 29, of Columbia, Tenn., was sentenced by the Honorable Pamela L. Reeves, U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 120 months in prison for possessing child pornography and attempted enticement of a minor. Following his release from prison, Overstreet will be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for LIFE and required to register with the sex offender registry in any state in which he resides, works, or attends school.

Overstreet pleaded guilty in June 2017 to federal charges stemming from his traveling from Columbia, TN., to Knoxville with the intent to have sex with a 12 year old female child. A search of Overstreet’s computer and thumb drives, as well as his residence in Columbia, TN., revealed he was in possession of thousands of files of child pornography that included sadistic / masochistic depictions and also images and videos of infants and toddlers being sexually abused.

This investigation was conducted by Knoxville Police Department’s Internet Crime Against Children Task Force and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney LaToyia Carpenter represented the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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