KY man who served time for child porn looked for illegal images soon after he got out.
A Kentucky man faces at least 15 years in prison for searching the internet for child pornography soon after finishing an earlier sentence for possessing similar illegal images.
James S. Wolfe, of Campbellsville, pleaded guilty in West Virginia in 2011 to possessing child pornography and was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison, according to a court record.
That sentence was to be followed by 10 years of supervision by probation officers.
Wolfe was released from prison on Nov. 29, 2017 and moved to Campbellsville to live with family members, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman in Louisville.
Federal probation officers in Kentucky took over his supervision.
The probation office agreed to let him have a computer, but only to look for work or conduct other routine business.
The agreement included monitoring by an outside company, according to court documents.
Less than a week after the monitoring started in April 2018, the company notified Wolfe’s probation officer of “concerning activity” that included looking for sexually suggestive material, according to the court record.
Soon after, the monitoring company sent another notice indicating Wolfe was using internet search terms that included “forbidden incest fantasies,” “preteen girls swimwear,” and “little girls,” according to a memorandum filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jo E. Lawson.
A probation officer went to Wolfe’s home and seized the computer, a cell phone he wasn’t supposed to have and several pages of handwritten notes that included lists of web sites.
Wolfe told the probation officer he didn’t think anything he searched for or viewed constituted child porn.
However, an examination by the U.S. Secret Service showed “search terms indicative of child sexual exploitation as well as shadow copies of images depicting the sexual exploitation of children,” the prosecutor said in the memo.
Wolfe denied the charges but a jury in Bowling Green convicted him last week of attempted receipt of child porn and accessing the internet with the intent to view child porn, according to a news release from Coleman.
“Prey on our kids in the Western District of Kentucky and expect swift and aggressive federal prosecution,” Coleman said in the release.
Wolfe is scheduled to be sentenced in April. He is already in custody because a judge revoked his probation.
This story was originally published January 20, 2020 at 5:40 PM.
