A Forsyth County man has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for distributing child pornography.
Joseph Gittings, 26, of Cumming, was arrested in November 2009 when federal agents broke up an international child pornography ring know as the “Boy Lover Network” web forum.
Gittings helped run the pornography ring from a home in Cumming as an administrator of a website called boylover.net, which has since been shut down, investigators said. The site circulated graphic images of young boys.
Senior District Court Judge William C. O’Kelley sentenced Gittings to 11 years in custody, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Gittings will be required to register as a sex offender when he is released from federal prison.
“While everyone is free to express their views, when their thoughts become actions and they collect and share child pornography, they step across the line separating free speech from crime. This defendant clearly crossed that line and for that he is being justly punished,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said.
Investigators took up the case in March 2009 when Australian police arrested a longtime member of the Boy Lover Network -- the online forum dedicated to the discussion and advocacy of man-boy love. That person identified Gittings -- known by the screen name of Joe Cool -- as being a senior member and administrator of the network.
According to the Australian defendant, Gittings worked closely with Amir Hurwitz, the Netherlands-based leader of the Boy Lover Network. Gittings provided technical support and participated in the senior leadership of the forum, investigators said.
Special agents with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement linked the moniker Joe Cool to Gittings and traced Gittings to a home in Cumming.
Investigators eventually developed a source who knew Gittings personally. In October 2009, Gittings provided the source with two DVDs filled with images and videos of child pornography, investigators said.
ICE arrested Gittings in November 2009 on charges of distributing child pornography. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2010.
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