LONGEST SENTENCE – 100 YEARS GIVEN TO CHILD PORNOGRAPHER

PRESS RELEASE

Susan W. Brooks, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, announced that DAVID ANDREW TURNER, 41, Bloomington, Indiana, was sentenced to 100 years imprisonment yesterday by U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton. This is the longest sentence imposed in the Southern District of Indiana for child exploitation crimes. TURNER requested a trial which began on August 22, 2005. After TURNER’s trial began, TURNER pleaded guilty after he heard the two juvenile victims testify. TURNER pleaded guilty to all ten counts in the indictment which included nine counts of producing child pornography and possessing child pornography. This case was the result of an investigation by the Bloomington (Indiana) Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

TURNER produced child pornography on nine separate occasions between September 2001 and November 2003. These occasions included two separate juvenile victims named in the indictment as Jane Doe and Mary Doe who were each born in 1988. Three of the eight counts involving Jane Doe included TURNER producing child pornography of her and an adult male named in the indictment as John Doe who was approximately 32 years old. TURNER provided alcohol, marijuana, jewelry, clothing items, and other gifts, to the juveniles in exchange for filming them engaging in sexually explicit conduct. On one occasion with Jane Doe and John Doe together, and on the occasion with Mary Doe, TURNER had provided an excessive amount of hard liquor to the girls which assisted in obliterating their memories of the filming. Prior to the trial, the government determined that TURNER had placed five of Jane Doe’s images on his commercial website that he had operated for several years. TURNER’s homemade videos and pictures of Jane Doe and Mary Doe added to his already massive collection of child pornography which was contained on over 100 computer disks and his hard drive. Law enforcement officials stopped counting illegal images when they reached 5,000, but estimated several thousands more of child pornography and child erotica contained in image and video files. His collection included images of sadistic and masochistic conduct and other depictions of violence against children, including bondage of children.

During sentencing Judge Hamilton noted that TURNER’S repeated criminal acts producing and possessing child pornography had spanned several years and that he had used alcohol and drugs to overcome the victims’ reluctance. Judge Hamilton rejected TURNER’S claim that he had accepted responsibility for his actions. He observed that TURNER’S decision to go to trial might have been motivated by TURNER’S belief that the juvenile victims would collapse with the stress of the court proceedings. Judge Hamilton also rejected TURNER’S argument that a lengthy sentence was cruel and unusual punishment given the numerous aggravating factors in the case.

Susan Brooks, U.S. Attorney, on the outcome, stated, “We are extremely pleased with the length of the sentence imposed by the Court. This sentence sends the message to the defendant and to others who seduce and film children engaging in sex acts that justice is served when the child pornographers spend the rest of their lives paying for the harm they inflict on child victims.”

According to Assistant United States Attorneys Gayle L. Helart and Steven D. DeBrota, who prosecuted the case for the government, TURNER was not fined.

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