TAMPA, Fla. — A Tampa sex offender is headed back to prison after posting explicit conversations with his 11-year-old sister online, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Charles Ruggiero, 38, was sentenced to five years Thursday. He pleaded guilty to accessing an electronic device with the intent to view child pornography in August 2017.
According to officials, in August 2016, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations in Tampa received tips about the recordings uploaded by Ruggiero.
He is a convicted sex offender, and at the time of the offense, he was on federal supervised release from a 2009 conviction for transporting and shipping child pornography, officials said.
Agents contacted Ruggiero's probation officer, who confirmed the phone number used to upload the recordings was the same as Ruggiero's, officials said.
Ruggiero admitted that he had been viewing child pornography on his girlfriend’s computer and cellphone for several months. A forensic analysis of the computer and cellphone revealed about 200 images depicting child pornography.
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