Texas Man Sentenced To 40 Years In Prison For Running Child Sexual Abuse Website For Over Two Decades

KEY POINTS

Thomas Alan Arthur, 65, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for running a child sexual abuse website
The site, Mr. Double, had been running since 1996 before it was taken down in 2019 by the FBI
Arthur had also sexually assaulted two females, one of them was aged 4 or 5 when she was abused

An elderly man in Brewster County, Texas was sentenced to 40 years in prison Tuesday for running a child sexual abuse website for over two decades.

Terlingua district resident Thomas Alan Arthur, 65, was convicted by a federal jury on Jan. 21 of three counts of trafficking in obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of a child, five counts of trafficking in obscene text stories about the sexual abuse of a child and one count of engaging in the business of selling obscene matters involving the sexual abuse of children, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement released on the day of his sentencing.

Citing court documents and evidence introduced at trial, the DOJ said Arthur began operating a website called Mr. Double in 1996, which was dedicated to publishing writings that detailed the sexual abuse of children. According to the DOJ, the writings included the rape, torture and murder of infants and toddlers.

Some of the author pages also contained drawings depicting children engaging in sexually explicit conduct, the DOJ said. Evidence showed that all submissions for publication were reviewed and approved by Arthur before he posted them on the site.

According to the DOJ, the website, which started to charge members for access in 1998, was Arthur's sole income for more than 20 years.

Mr. Double was taken down in November 2019 when the FBI executed a search warrant at Arthur's residence near Terlingua, where the website had been administered. Additional evidence from a host server in the Netherlands was also obtained, pursuant to a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the U.S. and the country.

Arthur had also sexually assaulted two females who came forward during the investigation of the Mr. Double case, the DOJ said. Court documents and statements showed that in 1992, Arthur drugged an adult woman living with him before sexually assaulting her and recording the incident.

Prior to the assault, Arthur had also molested a girl aged four or five years old, who was the daughter of a friend and business associate, way back in the 1980s.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, Arthur also received a three-year sentence for supervised release along with a $50,000 fine.