KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – On May 24, 2021, Terry Lee Gilbreath, age 52, was sentenced by the Honorable Judge Thomas A. Varlan, United States District Judge, to serve 50 years in prison for producing child pornography. 

In February 2020, a federal jury convicted Gilbreath of two counts of production of child pornography.  The evidence presented at trial established that on two separate occasions in 2015 the defendant video recorded and photographed his sexual molestation of an eight-year-old child. Following his imprisonment, Gilbreath will be supervised by the United States Probation Office for the rest of his life and will be required to register with the state sex offender registry in any state in which he lives, works, or attends school. 

Acting U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III of the Eastern District of Tennessee made the announcement.

The case was jointly investigated by Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations; the Knoxville Police Department, Internet Crimes Against Children Unit; the City of Madisonville Police Department; and the Monroe County Sheriff’s office. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006, by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.