A Loganville man will spend the rest of his life in prison for molesting a 3-year-old girl and videotaping himself in the act, the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office reported.
Geoffrey Craig Pickens, 48, was convicted Friday on two counts each of aggravated child molestation, aggravated sexual battery and child molestation.
He defended himself in the weeklong trial prior to sentencing.
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According to the district attorney’s office, an acquaintance had given Pickens a cell phone associated with her email account in the spring of 2014.
In May of that year, she opened her email and saw “hundreds of images of child pornography” and multiple videos of Pickens molesting a 3-year-old girl, a news release says. The acquaintance had her sister-in-law alert police.
When police searched Pickens’ mother’s home, where he lived, they found a “multitude of child pornography” in the form of physical pictures and digital photos and videos, the DA’s office said. A Gwinnett County child sex crimes investigator discovered that Pickens had met the victim’s mother in 2012 and babysat the victim.
The trial was a bench trial, meaning Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge Debra Turner, not a jury, reviewed the evidence and determined a verdict. Turner sentenced Pickens to life plus 40 years in prison with no possibility of parole.
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