ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH, Fla. — A 29-year-old St. Augustine man was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison for distributing child sexual abuse materials, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Patrick Howard Woodyard also faces a life term of supervised release after his federal prison term, prosecutors said. He and twin brother Nicholas Woodyard were originally indicted on charges of distribution, receipt and possession of images and videos depicting children being sexually abused. Patrick Woodyard had pleaded guilty on Aug. 28, while his brother is scheduled for a February trial, prosecutors said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security began the investigation when it found an image of child pornography had been distributed from the Woodyard brothers’ home. Agents executed a search warrant and seized electronic devices with hundreds of child pornography files, including images of the sexual assault of a child believed to be about 2, prosecutors said.
A forensic examination of the devices also showed that efforts to secretly record video of his family members in the nude and his desires to engage in incest, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Records showed that Patrick Woodyard also got images of his friends’ children and associates from their social media accounts, then passed those on to others so they could create "graphic sexual fantasies of the rape and torture of the children."
"For years this individual preyed on the innocence of our most vulnerable population to satisfy his sick and demented desires,” Assistant Special Agent in Charge K. Jim Phillips said. "With today's sentencing we have removed him from the community."
This case was also investigated with the help of St. Johns and the Clay County sheriff’s offices.
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