A Henry County man who was convicted of downloading child pornographic images a judge called “horrific” on Monday received a 20-year sentence, the maximum possible in his case.
Jarrett Leopard, 39, of McDonough, was convicted last month of 20 counts of sexual exploitation of children, Henry County Assistant District Attorney Megan Matteucci said in a news release. In addition to his 20-year sentence, Leopard will be required to register as a sex offender for life and pay a $5,000 fine.
Leopard is guilty of possessing hundreds of photos of toddlers and elementary school-aged children being sexually assaulted. According to Matteucci, the sentencing judge said the reality is children were raped and otherwise sexually assaulted because there is a market for the types of images Leopard possessed.
The state’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force began investigating Leopard after they were alerted of several child porn images he uploaded to a public photo-sharing website from his home, Matteucci said.
After being contacted by the ICAC task force, Henry police were able to take out a search warrant against Leopard and found more than 900 child porn images on his cellphone, according to Matteucci.
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