Ex-Fort Benning soldier sentenced in child porn case

A former Fort Benning soldier who admitted to downloading nearly 50,000 files over a two-year period was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court on one count of possession of child pornography.

Christopher Bryant Delgesso, 32, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison and 25 years of supervised released by Judge Clay D. Land. He also was ordered to pay $5,700 in restitution, court records show. The prosecutor was Crawford Seals, an assistant U.S. attorney.

Delgesso was serving at Fort Benning when a search warrant was executed at his home on June 24, 2016, after detectives with the Special Victims Unit of the Columbus Police Department determined that child pornography was downloaded from an IP address associated with the residence.

He was charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of children and later pleaded not guilty during a Recorder’s Court hearing. The charges were bound over to Superior Court but were later transferred to Federal Court.

Delgesso was indicted Feb. 15, 2017, on one count of possession of child pornography involving a minor under age 12. Delgesso pleaded guilty to the count on Aug. 1.

During a statement to a Columbus police detective, the father of two said he has been downloading pornography since he was 14 or 15 years old. The soldier couldn’t tell police how many files contained child pornography but admitted to downloading nearly 50,000 files over a two-year period.