Cyber tip helped save a 3-year-old Northeast Florida child who was sexually abused

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A California man is now in federal prison for a crime he committed while living here in Northeast Florida.

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Henry Cordon, 39, was sentenced last week to 30 years behind bars for sexually abusing a 3-year-old child and documenting it.

The investigation began back in 2019, starting with a cyber tip.

“These tips are vital,” Tim Hemker, said. “These are our avenues for exploring these, rescuing, and identifying the victims involved. That tip is key.”

Assistant Special Agent, Tim Hemker is in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Jacksonville. He said that a cyber tip was sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in Contra Costa County, California.

“Through their investigation, they identified that the original potential violator was from Northeast Florida,” Hemker said. “They reach out to us here at HSI in Jacksonville and we reached out and work collaboratively with our partners at Clay County Sheriff’s Office.”

Documents reveal the tip led investigators to Cordon’s home where he was asked about a particular photo depicting sexual abuse of a child that was recovered from his email account. The 39-year-old previously lived in the greater Jacksonville area. He admitted that he knew the child in the photo and claimed that his sexual abuse of the child only happened once.

“I think the perception of child predators is because they sit behind a computer screen or a device that they’re anonymous,” Hemker said. “It is our mission to ensure that they are in fact not anonymous.”

Homeland Security Investigations has 96 offices across the world and through one cyber tip, investigators were able to get justice for a child victim and their family.

“These crimes know no borders and so they don’t know jurisdictional boundaries,” Hemker said “We’ll pursue these child predators wherever they wherever they surface.”

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