Amarillo Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Child Pornography

An Amarillo man will spend the next two decades in prison for possessing child pornography.

34-year-old Matthew J. Merideth, formerly of Saginaw, Texas, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday morning, following his February guilty plea to a two-count indictment charging receipt and possession of child pornography.

Merideth was arrested in October 2010, after police in Saginaw executed a state search warrant on his computer. The search revealed that two videos, as well as numerous images of child pornography had been downloaded onto the computer.

Merideth told investigators that he had used the peer-to-peer file sharing program to locate and download child pornography, because he was attempting to hunt down individuals preying on children.

He told investigators that he was not successful, and did not report any of the activity found to law enforcement.