Texas man pleads guilty to advertising child sexual abuse material on dark web
BOSTON - A central Texas man has pled guilty in federal court to advertising child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the dark web.
35-year-old Neal Grubert of Bertram pled guilty to one count of advertising child pornography. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2021.
Sentencing has been scheduled for Oct. 19. Grubert faces a sentence of between 15 and 30 years in prison followed by five years to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
The U.S. Attorney's office says that in May 2020, Swedish authorities determined a Swedish citizen had been producing images and videos of himself sexually abusing his three-year-old niece and distributing them on various sites on the dark web.
An investigation uncovered that Grubert was an administrator on one of the websites.
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A forensic exam of the Swedish man's phone revealed several images and videos of CSAM and images and videos where Grubert could be seen watching the man sexually abuse his niece via webcam as well as directing the abuse.
An undercover investigation by federal law enforcement also found images and a video uploaded and published on the site by Grubert in his role as an administrator.
The Swedish man pled guilty to charges in Sweden and was sentenced to seven years in prison.