Knox County man sentenced for child porn

A Knox County man who shared pornographic images of children as young as 2 was sentenced Friday by a judge to spend 6 years in prison after he was convicted of one count of distributing child pornography.

Lee Allen Goudy, 24, of Howard, pleaded guilty in 2016 to a federal charge in U.S. District Court in Columbus. Judge Algenon L. Marbley handled the sentencing.

Prosecutors said that Goudy shared the images of young children being sexually abused through email, Dropbox and the Kik messanger app. More than 600 images were found on his electronic devices when they were seized in 2016, authorities said. U.S. Attorney Benjamin C. Glassman wrote in a news release that Goudy frequently initiated online contact with others and promoted “taboo” images.

“These communications involved utterly horrific discussions of the mostdepraved child sexual abuse and torture imaginable,” Glassman wrote.

Goudy’s public defender, George Chaney Jr., wrote in court filings that a federal sentencing commission report from 2012 noted that changes in modern technology, and the ease of using it, led to “exponential increases” in both the volume and accessibility of child pornography. It also led to more and more images of very young victims, he wrote, “a genre of child pornography that previously was not widely distributed.”

Chaney wrote that Goudy had led a troubled life, born to a drug-addicted mother who couldn’t care for him. He was raised by his grandmother and was home-schooled “with very little opportunity to develop friendships with people his own age.” That led him to search the internet and chatrooms.

In a letter to the court, Goudy wrote that he never meant to hurt anyone with his porn addiction.

“I’m so ashamed of what I’ve done,” he wrote. “I’m so sorry.”

Glassman, however, wrote in a release that Goudy did more than just share photographs: “Goudy consistently urged others to agree with his views about the sexual abuse of children and on some occasions, even encouraged others to sexually abuse children.”

Marbley ordered that after his prison sentence, Goudy will be under court supervision for 10 years.