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Virginia Man Gets 20 Years for Anime Child Porn

The Virginia man who was found guilty of 74 counts of child pornography in November, including several charges related to anime, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The individual, who was already on probation for a previous child pornography conviction, used a computer at the Virginia Employment Commission to download anime-child pornography and digital photographs of real children engaged in sexually explicit acts.

His conviction found him guilty of numerous charges related to both the "virtual" child pornography and the real child pornography. He was the first person convicted under the 2003 PROTECT act for life-like virtual child pornography.

The 2003 Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today act (PROTECT - Public Law 108-21), defines computer images that are indistinguishable from real children engaging in sexually explicit conduct as child pornography, while simple drawings which are easily distinguishable from real children are not considered child pornography.

Full text of a press release issued by the US department of Justice is as follows:

RICHMOND, Va., March 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Dwight Whorley, 52, of Richmond, Virginia has been sentenced to 240 months imprisonment on child pornography charges, Acting Deputy Attorney General and United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Paul J. McNulty and Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Alice S. Fisher today announced.

Whorley was convicted on November 30, 2005, after a four-day jury trial, of using a public computer at a Virginia Employment Commission ("VEC") office on March 30, 2004, to receive 20 obscene Japanese anime cartoons that graphically depicted prepubescent female children being forced to engage in sexual intercourse with adult males. Whorley was convicted under a new federal statute enacted in 2003 that criminalizes the production, distribution, or receipt of, or the possession with intent to distribute obscene drawings, cartoons, sculptures, paintings or any other obscene visual representation of the sexual abuse of children. Whorley's conviction for receiving cartoons is the first conviction under the statute that was not based on actual photographs of children.

The jury also convicted Whorley of receiving 14 digital photographs of real children engaging in sexually explicit conduct and of sending and receiving 20 obscene E-mails which graphically described, among other things, parents sexually molesting their own children.

At the time of his arrest in this case, Whorley was a registered sex offender who was convicted in March 1999, on a federal charge of receiving child pornography and was sentenced to 46 months' incarceration. In January 2003, after serving that sentence and while on supervised release for his earlier conviction, Whorley was re-arrested for violating the conditions of his probation. Whorley subsequently pled guilty to violating the conditions of his release and was sentenced to an additional 12 months of incarceration to be followed by 12 months of supervision by the United States Probation Office. He was arrested on the present charges on April 5, 2005-just three months after being released from incarceration-when United States Probation Officers learned that Whorley had received child pornography by using a computer at the VEC.

Also announcing the sentence is Donald Thompson, Special Agent-In-Charge at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Richmond Division.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sara E. Flannery and Damon A. King, Deputy Chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) at the Department of Justice. The case was investigated by a Special Agent of the FBI and James M. Fottrell of CEOS' High Technology Investigative Unit.

Additional information.