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SALT LAKE CITY — A South Jordan man was sentenced to prison after an investigation in Australia led to charges that he made and sent child sex abuse material.
Thomas Wallin, 23, was sentenced Tuesday to 18 years in prison after he pleaded guilty last fall to one felony count of production of child pornography. Once his prison time is complete, he will be under supervised release for the rest of his life and will register as a sex offender, according to a statement from the Utah U.S. Attorney's Office.
Wallin's charging documents say the investigation began in August 2020 when Australian law enforcement contacted Homeland Security agents in the country about child pornography material that had been sent to someone in the country from someone living in the United States. Australian police had arrested the man who received the child porn, and investigators later found the Australian had been exchanging child sex abuse material to someone in Utah via Telegram, an instant messaging app.
Police later found that the IP address belonged to Wallin, according to charging documents. Court records detail the conversations between the Australian and Wallin, which entailed the sharing of sexually explicit videos of children. Investigators said they found videos of Wallin sexually abusing a young boy under the age of 5.
Investigators say they confirmed the abuser was Wallin due to a "distinctive bracelet" worn in a video and a mole on Wallin's hand that is depicted in a video, the U.S. Attorney's Office says. During an interview with police, Wallin allegedly admitted to filming himself sexually abusing the child and also receiving sex abuse material over Telegram. When Wallin was arrested, investigators found over 20 sexually explicit photos of children under the age of 12, charging documents say.
"The troubling facts of this case should be a reminder for parents and guardians of young children to be extremely careful of who your children are left alone with," said acting U.S. Attorney for Utah Andrea Martinez in the statement.
Wallin was initially charged with three felonies in September 2020, though he pleaded guilty to the single charge in September 2021. Wallin will be transferred to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to serve his sentence.
