HOUSTON A 64-year-old Texan has been ordered to feder - al prison following his conviction of receipt and possession of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.
Scott Thomas Provost pleaded guilty Jan. 6.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner has now ordered Pro - vost to serve 240 months for re - ceiving child pornography and 120 months for possessing it. They will run concurrently with the exception of 22 months for a total of a 262-month term of im -
prisonment. Before imposing the sentence, Judge Hittner empha - sized Provost's history of sexual -
ly deviant behavior.
Provost will be ordered to pay
a restitution amount determined at a later date to identified vic - tims and must serve 10 years on supervised release following the completion of his prison term. During that time, he will have to comply with numerous require - ments designed to restrict his ac cess to children and the internet.
Provost will also be ordered to register as a sex offender.
"Provost amassed one of the most extensive collections of child pornography videos and images we have seen in this dis - trict," said Hamdani. "Each and every one of the files he had in his possession represents sig -
nificant trauma and suffering to real children. Today's sentence
demonstrates our commitment to
stop those who partake and assist others in viewing child pornog - raphy and the continued cycle of abuse these children endure." "This is, by far, the largest recovery of child pornographic material by investigators in our FBI Bryan office," said Special Agent in Charge James Smith of the FBI. "This individual is one of the worst purveyors of child porn our agents have seen - it was his daily obsession. Unfor -
tunately, with the ever-increasing number of online images depict -
ing sexual abuse of children and an ever-increasing amount of on - line activity by people seeking to contact them, Provost's arrest and sentence doesn't cure the rampant epidemic that is the sexual
exploitation of our children." Provost first came to the at - tention of law enforcement as an identified user of a peer-topeer network known which uses a centralized data store to keep and deliver information without fear of censorship.
Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Provost's res - idence in January 2022. They found approximately four tera -
bytes of pornography consisting of many images of child pornog - raphy that Provost had down - loaded and was storing on his personal hard drives.
Forensic analysis revealed 6,718 videos and 313,356 images that contained child sexual as- sault material. Some of the con - tent included children who were less than 12 years old as well as infants and toddlers. Many im - ages depicted young children in bondage and other forms of vio lence.
Provost has been and will re -
main in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facil - ity to be determined in the near future. The FBI conducted the investigation with the assistance of Bryan Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen M. Lansden prosecuted the case, which was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative the Depart -
ment of Justice (DOJ) launched in May 2006 to combat the grow - ing epidemic of child sexual ex - ploitation and abuse. U.S. Attor - neys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section leads PSC, which marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and identifies and rescues victims. For more information about PSC, please visit DOJ's PSC page. For information about internet safety, visit the link on that page.
