Lucas Allen Fussell, a former nurse practitioner at Eastern Shore Rural Health in Virginia, was sentenced today to more than 87 months in prison and ten years of supervised release for distributing child sexual abuse material through an encrypted messaging application. He was also fined $20,000.

“The defendant, who held a position of trust as a nurse practitioner, used an end-to-end encrypted messaging application to disseminate images depicting the abuse of young children and boasted about the effectiveness of his measures to evade law enforcement detection,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

“He thought he could use technology to hide his crimes, but he was wrong. His sentencing today should serve as a warning: to those who harm vulnerable children, we will identify you, prosecute you, and bring you to justice,” he continued.

Lucas Fussell was first arrested in July 2024 following an investigation into the distribution of child pornography. Investigators said they linked Fussell to the investigation after seizing another suspect’s phone, where they discovered a series of messages between the suspect and the suspect on an encrypted messaging app frequently used to traffic child sexual abuse material, according to the FBI.

Following their investigation, the government found a hard drive and cell phone belonging to the 43-year-old man, where they found more than 3,000 child sexual abuse videos.

In August 2024, Fussell was indicted by a Washington, D.C., grand jury and initially pleaded not guilty to two counts of distributing child pornography.

Months later, in December 2024, Fussell reversed himself and pleaded guilty to both charges.