A Vestavia Hills man was sentenced to more than two decades in prison on child pornography charges.

U.S. District Court Judge R. David Proctor sentenced Eugene Douglas Reid, III, 48, to 288 months – 24 years – in prison followed by 20 years supervised release for distribution and transportation of child pornography, according to an announcement Wednesday by Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona and FBI Special Agent in Charge Carlton L. Peeples.

Reid was convicted of these charges at trial in August.

In 2020, FBI agents Milwaukee, working with the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, investigated numerous groups of people engaged in the receipt, possession, distribution and possible production of child sexual abuse material through a proactive operation.

As part of the FBI’s operation, online covert employees documented these illegal activities and forwarded the documentation for further investigation to the appropriate FBI field office.

The evidence at trial showed that Reid had distributed and transported numerous videos and images of child sexual abuse material on the Kik messaging application in various private groups during the first half of 2020.

In addition to the evidence collected by undercover law enforcement, Kik’s parent company, MediaLab, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also provided evidence of further illegal activity under Kik usernames associated with Reid.

“Today’s sentence is the result of the collaborative work by our law enforcement partners in Alabama and Wisconsin to protect victims of child exploitation,” Escalona said.

“Individuals who engage in the distribution and production of child pornography must be held accountable for their heinous actions, Peeples said. “This sentence just reconfirms the FBI’s commitment to stopping child predators and shutting down the online networks that produce child sexual abuse material.”

The FBI Birmingham’s Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force investigated the case with the assistance of FBI Milwaukee Division, Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, Vestavia Hills Police Department, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kristen S. Osborne and R. Leann White prosecuted the case.