West Virginia Man, David Hicks, Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison on Child Pornography Charges

According to the United States Department of Justice, A West Virginia man has recently been sentenced to up to thirty years in prison on child pornography charges.

This sentence was announced today by both United States Attorney Charles T. Miller of the Southern District of West Virginia as well as Alice S. Fisher, Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division. The sentencing was done by Joseph R. Goodwin, United States District Judge.

The Cross Lanes, West Virginia man sentenced is David A. Hicks, 38. He was sentenced for a number of charges including producing, receiving, and possessing child pornography. He was sentenced in Charleston, West Virginia, and besides his thirty year sentence, he also faces a lifetime term of supervised release following his releasing from prison years to come.

This also come about from a five day trial that took place on January 23, 2007, in which David Hicks was found guilty on two counts of possessing child pornography, two counts of producing child pornography, as well as one count of receiving child pornography over the Internet. United States District Court Judge Goodwin took care of this trial in United States District Court, which was also held in Charleston, West Virginia.

Hicks, who is a father of two young girls under the age of 10, quite often had his daughter's friends over to spend the night. Five of the daughter's friends testified against Hicks in court claiming their was more to it than just spending the night with their friend and friend's father. The girls all reported that Hicks would constantly take pictures of the girls in a variety of situations ranging from walking in on them while they were in the bathroom bathing or changing, photographing them through the windows while they were swimming in the pool outside, and even physically touching a few of the girls in inappropriate places. This sick man even commented to the girls on his ability to "see through their clothing". To make the matter even worse, all of the photos taken were nude, or partially nude, and all were stored on his computer or in labeled folders.

Hicks is a computer expert who had 4 hard drives on his one computer. He had 1000's of movies and pictures of children saved to his computer when police raided his household. He also engaged in file sharing of minors engaging in explicit conduct.

SOURCE

PRnewswire