October 1st, 2024 – 10:25 AM
United States Attorney’s Office Northern District of Georgia –
Ian Alicea Prewett has been sentenced to federal prison for enticing children to perform sexual acts to produce child pornography.
“Prewett is a sexual predator who enticed and victimized innocent children,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “His prosecution and sentence are examples of our office’s steadfast commitment to engaging with our law enforcement partners to identify and hold accountable individuals like Prewett who seek to exploit the anonymity of the internet to sexually abuse vulnerable children.”
“This sentence represents a victory in the ongoing battle to protect our most vulnerable citizens — our children. This predator, who has perpetrated unspeakable horrors on minors, will now face justice for the seriousness of his crimes,” said Steven N. Schrank, Acting Special Agent in Charge who oversees Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) operations in Georgia and Alabama. “HSI and its law enforcement partners will continue to use every available resource to find, arrest, and prosecute those who seek to exploit children.”
According to U.S. Attorney Buchanan, the charges, and other information presented in court: On various dates between 2020 and 2022, Ian Alicea Prewett uploaded sexually explicit digital images of minors to Instagram. Although Prewett tried to conceal his online identity, federal agents identified him as the individual who uploaded the images and, in May 2023, obtained a warrant to search his home. During the search, agents discovered a cell phone associated with the Instagram accounts that Prewett used to distribute child pornography.
At the time agents executed the search warrant, Prewett was already awaiting trial in Cobb County, Georgia, for statutory rape, child molestation, and child enticement. Those charges resulted from Prewett chatting with a 14-year-old girl on Instagram, asking her to send him sexually explicit photographs of herself, and then engaging in sex acts with her.
Before his arrest in May 2023, Prewett used social media to entice numerous minors to create sexually explicit material and engage in sexual acts. One of his victims was a minor under eight years old living in the United Kingdom. Prewett directed her to send him pictures and videos of herself performing sexual acts. Prewett also instructed a minor from Mobile, Alabama to do the same and he later traveled to Alabama to meet, photograph, and engage in sex acts with the minor.
Ian Alicea Prewett, 31, of Cartersville, Georgia, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William M. Ray, II to 20 years in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release. Prewett was convicted of sexual exploitation of children after he pleaded guilty on April 24, 2024.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations with assistance from the Cobb County Police Department, Bartow County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and Wiltshire Police (United Kingdom).
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Theodore S. Hertzberg and Calvin A. Leipold, III prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, the Attorney General launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse, led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children.