Man sentenced to 5 years for child pornography

CRIME & THE COURTS

YOUNGSTOWN — A Canfield man who pleaded guilty to 17 child- pornography counts has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Paul Clymer, 69, entered his guilty plea Jan. 27 before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who imposed the prison time Thursday.

The prosecution had recommended a 10-year sentence; the defense called for probation.

“The harm to these victims is so great. They’re being abused in these videos. I mean this isn’t consensual sex. This is rape of children, many of whom would be too young to even consent to sexual conduct,” Jennifer McLaughlin, an assistant county prosecutor, told the judge.

“Every time somebody watches these videos, again and again and again, this child is victimized,” she added.

“There’s no indication he’s had any contact with any children. There’s no indication that he photographed any children,” Clymer’s lawyer, John Juhasz, said of his client, who has no prior criminal record.

Clymer was involved in a peer- to- peer online filesharing network. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation downloaded two videos from him that contained child pornography, McLaughlin said.

Clymer pleaded guilty to two counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity- oriented material or performance and 15 counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor.

The pandering charges represented child pornography videos in his possession, McLaughlin said.

The defense withdrew a motion to exclude from evidence statements Clymer made to police and BCI agents when they searched his residence May 18, 2012.

Clymer, who apologized for his conduct, was indicted by the county grand jury on 52 child- porn counts. Thirty- five were dropped in the plea deal.

“I now realize that my actions may have provided support to people who were abusing children, and I feel really terrible about that and hope I will be able to find some way to atone,” Clymer told the judge.

Clymer will be on probation for five years after prison, and he will have to register as a sex offender with the sheriff every 180 days for 25 years.

“The lament is that the users ( of child pornography) are easily caught and punished, and the producers and providers continue to prey upon all of our society, and, for some reason, we can’t catch them,” Judge Krichbaum said.

However, he told Clymer: “It does not minimize what you did.”