Raleigh man sentenced to prison for seeking child pornography online

A Raleigh man is facing 16 years in federal prison for seeking child pornography online.

On Friday, William Robert Jeffery was sentenced to more than a decade and a half in prison for accessing the internet with intent to view child pornography, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Michael Easley.

Raleigh police became aware of Jeffrey, 61, in spring 2020 after getting a tip from National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding illegal internet activity at his home in Raleigh, according to the statement. When they searched his home, they found a laptop that contained “extensive activity” in an online chat room seeking images of child sexual abuse and multiple images of child pornography that Jeffery had deleted from his internet history.

A forensic examination of the laptop showed extensive activity on the chat website and mages that had been deleted from the internet history. The forensic analyst also recovered deleted images on an older computer that Jeffery had used in 2006-2009, along with earlier activity on the same chat website.

Jeffery has previously been convicted in federal court for traveling in interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in a sex act with a minor in 2020. In 2021, he was convicted in Dare County Superior Court of two counts of indecent liberties with a minor.

Jeffery was convicted in December and will spend the next 16 years in prison, the statement said.