USVI boxer facing 15-year sentence for child porn
US Virgin Islands boxer, John Jackson, will spend at least 15 years in prison after he was convicted of four federal and two local criminal charges following a six-day jury trial.
Jackson was convicted of producing child pornography, three counts of transportation of a minor for criminal sexual conduct, first-degree rape, and aggravated second-degree rape.
United States Attorney Gretchen C F Shappert said today that the jury heard testimony from three victims detailing how Jackson picked them up from their high schools and other locations and then transported them to various places on St Thomas to engage in criminal sex acts.
On one occasion, Jackson used a cell phone belonging to Jane Doe Number One, who had just turned fifteen years old, to record their encounter.
According to trial testimony, Jackson provided the three victims with money, jewellery and marijuana.
In a videotaped confession shown to the jury, Jackson, who represented the US Virgin Islands at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, acknowledged that he engaged in sexual relations with Jane Doe Number One.
Shappert commended islanders for taking the sexual assault allegations seriously.
She stated: "We are grateful for the initiative of the adults in these young women’s lives who brought John Jackson’s criminal actions to the attention of law enforcement. We are also grateful for the courage of the three young women who testified about their suffering at the hands of the defendant."
Jackson, who has been in federal custody since his arrest in February of 2019, will be sentenced on August 25, 2022.
The 33-year-old faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years for the production of child pornography, and a federal district court judge will determine the defendant’s sentence after considering the US Sentencing Guidelines.
0 Comment