Georgia trucker sentenced for child porn
A truck driver from Georgia was sentenced in a federal courtroom in Virginia Wednesday to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a child porn distribution charge.
Galen E. Vanord, 53, of Millen, had 14,000 images and 381 videos of child porn on his computer when federal agents seized it last year, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Thursday. The images included a picture of an infant female engaged in sexual intercourse with an adult male, the newspaper reported on its website.
Lawyers for the long-haul trucker argued for leniency, saying that as a child Vanord suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse from his father and that there was no evidence he had ever physically harmed a child.
But prosecutors argued that Vanord had an "astounding" number of images on his laptop. "The defendant is a risk to his daughter, his family and the community," said Jessica Brumberg, an assistant U.S. attorney.
U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson in Richmond could have sentenced Vanord to as few as five years. But the judge found that Vanord had taken nude photos of a young girl that, while not depicting sexual activity, were deemed pornographic, and decided that Vanord was a danger to young people.
The judge said he had seen child porn in other cases over the years and that "the stuff you had is among the worst I've seen."
The trucker pleaded guilty June 1 to a charge of distributing child pornography from his computer on April 27, 2009.
Authorities said he downloaded child pornography at truck stops across the country. On March 3, when Vanord was in Richmond, the FBI used a warrant to search him and his truck, seizing his laptop computer and hard drive that held the pornographic material.
An FBI agent working undercover in Richmond had previously downloaded 600 images and one video from Vanord, the newspaper reported.
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
