MACON, Ga. — A Macon and Gray man will spend the next 20 years in jail after pleading guilty to possessing over 2,000 images of children being sexually abused, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia.
Back in March 2020, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations searched the Macon home of 38-year-old David Heath, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
There, authorities found laptops, cell phones, USB sticks and external hard drives that had thousands of "images of children being sexually assaulted and abused."
In all, they say he had 2,081 images of child sexual abuse material, including 116 images of tollers of infants being sexually abused. One photo showed sadomasochistic conduct involving a child, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Their investigation into Heath was started after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found 300 images of abuse material linked to a Google account used by Heath back in January 2020. They passed that information along to the GBI.
Then, they said another cyber tip came in with more cyber tip came in with 75 child sexual abuse files, submitted only a month later in February 2020. The U.S. Attorney's Office says there were 43 cybertips that were discovered to have come from the same user.
But this is not Heath's first run-in with the law. Previously, he was conviction of aggravated assault on a peace officer in Bibb County.
Then, in 2020, his parole was revoked after authorities found Heath with methamphetamine and child pornography.
Heath is not eligible for parole.