A man convicted in Alabama in 1998 of sodomizing a teen boy has been found guilty in a federal court in Florida of hacking into the Jacksonville Jaguars’ jumbotron as retaliation for his firing after the NFL team learned he was a convicted sex offender.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida, 53-year-old Samuel Arthur Thompson was found guilty of sending unauthorized damaging commands to a protected computer.

In addition, Thompson was found guilty of producing, receiving and possession child sex abuse material (CSAM), producing CSAM while required to register as a sex offender, failing to register as a sex offender, and of possessing a firearm while a convicted felon.

Thompson was hired by the Jaguars in 2013 to consult on the design and installation of the team’s new video board, commonly referred to as a jumbotron, and to operate the jumbotron on game days, once installation was complete.

Thompson, however, failed to notify the Jaguars’ of his status as a registered sex offender, as his contract with the team mandated. In January 2018, the team learned of Thompson’s conviction and did not renew his contract.

Before his existing contract expired in March 2018, Thompson installed software into the Jaguars’ system which would allow him to remotely access the computers which controlled the jumbotron. He used this access to cause the video boards to repeatedly malfunction during three NFL games in the 2018 season.

Once the Jaguars determined the outages were being caused maliciously from outside the organization, the team set up a “honeypot” — putting the server on its own network and removing its access to the other computers which controlled the jumbotron.

During the next game, Thompson once again access the system and attempted to send commands to the computers controlling the video boards. This time, however, the Jaguars were able to capture the internet protocol (IP) address of the hacker computer, which the FBI then traced to Thompson’s residence.

In July 2019, the FBI executed a search warrant at Thompson’s home, seizing several computers, as well as a firearm which Thompson was prohibited from owning as a convicted felon.

Logs from Thompson’s computers, iPhone and iPad indicated they had all been used to access the Jaguars’ system. In addition, the FBI found thousands of images and hundreds of videos on Thompson’s personal devices depicting child pornography, or CSAM.

The images and videos depicted sexual abuse of prepubescent children, bondage and torture of children, and bestiality. The files also included a video and photos that Thompson produced in 2019 depicting children who had been in his care and custody.

Federal investigators interviewed three male children (ages 7, 8 and 10 at the time) who had been in Thompson’s care, learning he had molested and exposed himself to the children, exposed the children to CSAM, and spoken to the children about sex and masturbation.

Thompson had additionally encouraged the children to play a “game” in which the children were required to strip and run around Thompson’s house. Thompson would then video the children playing the “game.”

Thompson’s iPad also showed he had been searching the dark web for additional CSAM at the time FBI agents knocked on his door to execute the search warrant.

In mid-July 2019, Thompson traveled to the Bahamas for work, but failed to report his travel as is required of registered sex offenders. The day after he returned, he again obtained CSAM through the dark web. Two weeks later, Thompson fled to the Philippines, again failing to report his travel.

Thompson’s passport was revoked and he was deported from the Philippines in January 2020. The FBI took him into custody when he returned to the U.S., and he was ordered held until trial.

A federal jury handed down the guilty verdicts Friday after a two-week trial in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville. Thompson’s sentencing is set for March 2024. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he is facing a minimum sentence of 35 years.