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Hartselle Enquirer

Danville man sentenced to 6 1/2 years for possessing child pornography

A federal judge sentenced a Morgan County Man to more than six years in prison Wednesday for possessing child pornography obtained over the Internet.

Walter Scott Simpson, 42, of Danville pleaded guilty in July to one count of possessing child pornography.

U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor sentenced Simpson to 6 1/2 years in prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release. The judge ordered Simpson into custody following the hearing.

U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said in a press release that Simpson used the Internet and a peer-to-peer file-sharing software program to possess and access images of child pornography between January 2011 and May 2012, according to his plea agreement with the government.

A sentencing document the government filed Tuesday states Simpson used his computer, the Internet and the file-sharing program to possess at least 25,443 images of child pornography, which included images of children under 12 years old engaged in sexually explicit conduct and images depicting sadistic and masochistic conduct with prepubescent children.

Undercover law enforcement officers received child pornography in January 2012 from a computer using peer-to-peer software, according to Simpson’s plea agreement. The FBI tracked the computer to Simpson’s Danville residence, where agents executed a search warrant for computer media in May 2012 and found the child pornography, the plea agreement states.

The FBI investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel J. Fortune prosecuted.

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