Cotrill Sentenced to Nine Years for Possession of Child Pornography

GULFPORT, Miss. – A Vancleave man received a nine-year federal prison sentence last week, followed by ten years of supervised release, for possessing over 83,000 depictions of child pornography.

Cameron Willis Cotrill, 68, was identified during an online child exploitation investigation as a user on the BitTorrent network sharing child sexual abuse material. Investigators found Cotrill possessed 2,308 image files and 1,082 video files, totaling 83,458 visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

Indicted by a federal grand jury on June 21, 2023, Cotrill pleaded guilty on December 19, 2023. The court also ordered him to pay $237,194.12 in restitution to the victims, a $5,000 assessment under the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act of 2018, and $5,000 under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015.

U.S. Attorney Todd W. Gee and FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Eikhoff announced the sentencing. The FBI, with assistance from the Cyber Crime Division of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, investigated the case.

This case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. For more information, click here.