He faces no less than five nor more than 15 years in prison. He also must register as a sex offender.
Marshall County, W.Va. —After a two-day trial, 29-year-old Devon Eckard of Cameron was found guilty of a felony of possessing and distributing child pornography.
A thorough investigation revealed that Eckard had around 1500 sexually explicit images and videos on his cell phone.
Though pleased with the verdict, Marshall County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Canestraro says it’s one of the worst cases of child pornography that his office has ever seen.
“It was infant children both male and female sexually abused in videos,” he described, “In this case, he actually had placed these videos on his cell phone and put them in two concealment apps that actually looked like calculators and they weren’t calculators. When you opened them up, you could actually hide photos and videos and other media in them.”
Unfortunately, Canestraro says the county is seeing a rise in this type of crime, as technology advances.
He hopes this conviction will bring light to how predators can use everyday phone apps to hide harmful material.
“It’s easier for people to find things and get things and it’s easier for people to access the dark web, file sharing.”
“We’re going to be vigilant as we see more and more of these crimes happen and we’re going to do all we can to seek the maximum sentence on these people.”
Eckard’s is being charged with the distribution and exhibiting of material depicting minors engaging in a sexually explicit conduct.
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