SACRAMENTO — For years, Stockton resident Jonathan Thornton made his living by running a photography studio that mostly shot portraits of children. But federal authorities said he had a horrifying side gig: taking sexually explicit pictures of his underage subjects and distributing them on the Dark Web.
Thornton, who over the years has been active in Los Angeles and San Joaquin Counties, was charged Tuesday with child porn distribution, a federal offense. He was arrested after an FBI investigation recovered hundreds of child porn pictures allegedly shot by Thornton.
The criminal complaint says that Thornton’s name has come up twice since 2013 in the course of child exploitation investigations, but that both times authorities failed to pursue criminal charges against Thornton, and he continued to run his business. Authorities say they identified “at least six” underage victims, including at least one Thornton is suspected of molesting.
Thornton owns and operates Thornton Photography Studio, and advertised himself on his Instagram page as, “an independent photographer with BBR Studio and National Modeling Showcase.” His website contains a portfolio of 44 photos of adults and children, including some of clothed children in suggestive poses.
But on the Dark Web, federal authorities say Thornton was advertising pictures of “nude and non-nude” children, and showcased hundreds of pictures of children, including one victim, “Pixie,” who he advertised as being 7 years old, and another who he said was 6, the complaint alleges.
An FBI agent described the many of the photos as “lascivious display of the genitals,” and the complaint says Thornton posted online that he “spent a good five minutes” molesting one girl with a cherry in order to get a specific photograph the way he wanted it.
In a video allegedly posted by Thornton, a naked girl is seen being rubbed down by an adult male. Another photo shows the same girl painting herself with body paint, the complaint says.
The FBI traced the photos back to Thornton by doing image searches for “Pixie,” which led them to the realization that Thornton had posted clothed pictures of the girl on his photography website, the complaint says.
When authorities ran Thornton’s name in a law enforcement database, they were in for a surprise: Thornton had been the subject of child exploitation investigations going back seven years.
In 2013, federal authorities raided Thornton’s Stockton home based on a tip that he was selling child abuse material online. During the search, the complaint says: “agents located several thousand images and videos of child exploitation material on eight different devices. Thornton was interviewed and admitted to operating the website from his residence.”
For reasons that are not made clear in the complaint, Thornton was never charged. He was investigated three years later, in 2016, after he was allegedly caught bragging in online chats that he had “access to sexually exploit a minor female.” Police searched his home, where he lived with his wife and young son. But when no minor female victims were located, the investigation ended; police apparently didn’t make the connection that he operated a studio and had access to children that way.
In 2020, authorities once again raided Thornton’s home, recovering electronic devices and his cameras. The complaint says he confessed to accepting payments for child porn pictures of “Pixie,” which were facilitated on the Dark Web, through cryptocurrency. Authorities also found pictures of the girl that hadn’t been published, and “costumes” worn by her in some of the Dark Web photos.
Authorities say that in addition to running his studio in Stockton, Thornton has done business in the Los Angeles County city of Baldwin Park.