Amarillo Man and Convicted Sex Offender Sentenced to 40 Years for Trading Child Pornography
AMARILLO, TX — A convicted sex offender who was on active parole has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in victim restitution for running an online child pornography trading network, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould.
Matthew Albert Tate, 57, of Amarillo, was sentenced to 480 months in federal prison on May 27, 2026, by U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk after pleading guilty to transportation of child pornography. Judge Kacsmaryk also ordered Tate to pay $96,500 in restitution to his victims.
Digital Tracking Catches Repeat Offender
The federal investigation was launched in April 2025 when Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) traced child pornography trafficking to an IP address in the Amarillo area.
Agents linked the IP address to Tate, a registered sex offender who had been paroled in 2021 after serving 24 years of a 30-year state prison sentence. That prior 1997 conviction stemmed from Tate sexually abusing a child under the age of 14 and producing child pornography of her.
Investigators discovered that beginning in January 2025—while still on active parole—Tate used a file-sharing platform to allow online users to download child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including files depicting prepubescent children.
Thousands of Abuse Files Seized in Raid
In May 2025, law enforcement executed a federal search warrant at Tate’s Amarillo home, seizing multiple electronic devices, including a Dell laptop computer.
A forensic audit of the hardware revealed 3,246 individual files of CSAM. Analysts determined Tate had transferred these files across various file-sharing networks to other online users. Among the recovered files, 16 distinct victims were formally identified through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
During interrogation, Tate admitted to downloading, saving, and trading the illicit material, stating he was fully aware his actions were criminal.
U.S. Attorney’s Statement: Following the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould commended the trial team and the investigators who brought the repeat offender to justice:
“This defendant chose time and time again to abuse children and proliferate sexual abuse material online. He will, rightly so, spend the rest of his life behind bars. The judge in this case also ordered that he pay restitution back to the victims for his heinous crimes.”
“This sentence reflects the devastating harm these crimes inflict on children and sends a clear message to those who prey on our most vulnerable,” said Travis Pickard, Special Agent in Charge of HSI Dallas.
The joint investigation was conducted by the HSI Amarillo Resident Agency and the Texas Department of Public Safety, with assistance from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Parole Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Callie Woolam prosecuted the case.
