A former Pinellas County trainer has been sentenced to twenty years in federal jail after pleading responsible to costs involving baby exploitation, federal prosecutors introduced.
Lee Hughes, 46, of Pinellas Park, was sentenced by U.S. District Decide Thomas P. Barber for tried switch of obscene materials to a minor, tried coercion and enticement of a minor to have interaction in illegal exercise, and receipt and possession of kid intercourse abuse materials.
Hughes pleaded responsible on Jan. 30, 2026, in accordance with the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Center District of Florida.
Federal prosecutors mentioned Hughes communicated on-line for months with an undercover officer whom he believed had a 9-year-old daughter. In response to court docket paperwork, Hughes expressed a want to abuse the kid and despatched express photographs and movies of himself, asking that they be proven to the purported baby.
On Might 1, 2025, Hughes arrived at a predetermined location to fulfill the kid and was arrested by FBI brokers on the scene, prosecutors mentioned.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Abigail Okay. King and Courtney Derry.
Federal officers mentioned the case was introduced as a part of Undertaking Protected Childhood, a U.S. Division of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to fight baby exploitation and abuse. This system brings collectively federal, state and native assets to determine, examine and prosecute offenders who exploit kids, significantly by way of the web.
