Jury Charges Texan Man for Online Child Porn

The Texan Attorney General Office has issued a legal accusation on Michael McDonough, 59, for ten severe criminal counts of possessing child pornography and two similar counts of promoting child pornography. TimesRecordNews.com published this in news on July 4, 2007.

The news release alerted authorities about the existence of a man who was distributing child pornography online.

The Cyber Crime Unit of Attorney General Greg Abbott brought the case before the grand jury following which its members legally charged McDonough on July 2, 2007. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offered a suggestion to the Cyber Crimes Unit, said Lauri Saathoff, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Attorney General.

Saathoff informed that following a search warrant in January 2007, investigators examined McDonough's business computer. Forensic analysis of the computer revealed evidences of sexual assaults on children. The police uncovered several pictures of child porn on the PC. It also found the e-mail address through which McDonough uploaded the images.

Abbott asserted that Texas would not allow criminals to move about freely who thrive on child exploitation, as published by TimesRecordNews.com. The McDonough case has been included within the Project Safe Childhood, a national project towards child protection against exploitation and abuse on the Internet.

The indictment covers two second-degree charges on McDonough for promoting child pornography in February 2006 in Archer County. There are also 10 third-degree charges on him for possessing child pornography also in Archer County in January 2007.

Hack McGaughey, district attorney for the 97th Judicial District, whose responsibility included Archer, Clay and Montague counties, said that his team would help the Attorney General's Office to solve the case. He also said that the indictment bond was decided at $150,000.

According to comments by Martha Coakley, Attorney General for Massachusetts, as cyber crime continuously evolves to new forms, the law enforcement groups have to continually battle with forensic, investigative and prosecutorial evidences requiring them to increase awareness.

Meanwhile, broadband users are largely abandoning DVDs and pay-per-view TV, shifting their preference to computer screens to view porn online, observes Dennis McAlpine, managing director of media research company McAlpine Associates.

Related article: Jury Declares Epic Advertising Innocent of Spam Charge

» SPAMfighter News - 7/16/2007