A 52-year-old Oklahoma man who previously served time for child exploitation crimes has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
Thomas Edward Gailus of Webbers Falls received the sentence last week for possessing child sexual abuse material obtained through the dark web, according to a September 8 press release by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs.
Court documents reveal Gailus collected large quantities of abuse material featuring prepubescent children. Federal investigators discovered he possessed files with the same series title as images from his 2005 conviction.
That earlier case in Washington State resulted in convictions for possessing explicit images of minors and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.
FBI agents searched Gailus’s home in 2023 as part of Operation Grayskull. The joint Justice Department and FBI initiative dismantled four dark websites dedicated to child sexual abuse material.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti emphasized the case’s significance within Project Safe Childhood, the nationwide program that was launched in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation.
Federal prosecutors from the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section handled the case alongside the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
The investigation demonstrates continued federal efforts to pursue repeat offenders who use encrypted networks to access illegal content. Gailus’s decade-long sentence reflects the serious nature of possessing child sexual abuse material.