Serial rapist to serve 25 years in federal prison
ATLANTA / Tuesday, January 27, 2026 – Jacques Jackson, who raped three teenage girls he met on Instagram, has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.
“Our community is safer today because law enforcement agencies from around the country collaborated to put an irrepressible sexual predator in prison for a quarter century,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “This case is an important reminder that social media is often an abuser’s preferred means to manipulate, exploit, and victimize unsuspecting children. I urge parents to monitor their kids’ online activity vigilantly.”
“Jacques Jackson’s actions were reprehensible and justice was served,” said Peter Ellis, Acting Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “This predator exploited social media to devastate vulnerable minors, and we will not tolerate such abuse. The FBI, in partnership with local law enforcement, will relentlessly pursue those who prey on our children.”
According to U.S. Attorney Hertzberg, the charges, and other information presented in court: Law enforcement first encountered Jackson in Decatur, Georgia in August 2018, after DeKalb County police officers rescued one of his victims, a 15-year-old girl. Jackson and the minor were at a grocery store when the minor, with the help of a bystander, got the attention of a police officer. Jackson was arrested and confessed to meeting the minor on Instagram, knowing she was 15, blackmailing her to coerce her to meet him out of state, punching her, destroying her cell phone, and having sex with her multiple times. Although officers arrested him then, Jackson was released on bond approximately six months later.
On October 1, 2021, the Elberton, Georgia, Police Department received a report concerning a missing 15-year-old girl. Investigators learned that the missing girl had used her younger brother’s phone to communicate with Jackson. They discovered that Jackson and the minor exchanged sexually explicit videos with each other. On October 5, the minor returned to her family and explained that, after she met Jackson on Instagram, Jackson sent an Uber for the minor and they stayed at a motel where Jackson had sex with her multiple times, knowing she was 15.
Over several months, the FBI tried to find Jackson. In June 2022, agents learned that Jackson was on a Greyhound bus headed west from Atlanta. On June 8, 2022, local law enforcement arrested Jackson at a bus station in Big Spring, Texas. Jackson had a gun and $3,500 cash, and he was accompanied by a runaway child. The child disclosed to investigators that she met Jackson on Instagram and told him she was 16, that they had sex several times at an Atlanta area hotel, and that Jackson recorded a video of them having sex at least once.
The investigation also revealed that Jackson was linked to an unsolved July 2015 forcible rape of a 15-year-old girl in Atlanta. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, DNA samples collected from the victim in 2015 matched a DNA sample taken from Jackson following his arrest in 2018.
On January 23, 2026, U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr. sentenced Jacques Jackson, 30, of Atlanta, Georgia, to 25 years in prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release. On May 8, 2025, Jackson pled guilty to one count of interstate transportation of a minor to engage in unlawful sex and two counts of enticing minors to engage in unlawful sex. Jackson has been in custody since his arrest in June 2022.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with valuable assistance from the DeKalb County Police Department, Baton Rouge (LA) Police Department, Big Spring (TX) Police Department, Elberton (GA) Police Department, and Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex R. Sistla and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Annalise K. Peters prosecuted this case.
For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Georgia
