A Lewiston man, Mark Burns, 61, was sentenced on Tuesday after he pled guilty to charges of possession of sexually explicit material involving children under 12.
“Chief Judge Jon D. Levy noted that Burns’ collection of child pornography was ‘immense.’ When imposing sentence, Judge Levy called the volume of Burns’ collection a ‘significant aggravating factor,’” said the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Burns was investigated in April after police detected that an IP address corresponding to his computer had shared an explicit image of a child under the age of six.
While executing a search warrant, police discovered over 12,000 images and 1,100 videos of sexual abuse material in Burns’ possession.
Court records revealed that Burns’ immense collection included material on infants.
For his crimes, Burns was sentenced to only ten years in prison, which, according to the Attorney’s office, is the minimum sentence for possessing sexually explicit material involving a child under the age of 12.
Burns, who pled guilty to the crime on August 28, will also be subjected to eight years of supervised release after his prison sentence, and will be forced to pay $58,000 in “restitution.”
Although he received the minimum prison sentence for his recent conviction, this is not the first time Burns has been charged with possession of child porn.
According to the attorney’s office, Burns was convicted of the same crime in 2016, for which he should have served the minimum ten years in prison.
The attorney’s office did not specify why Burns was free in 2023, only seven years after his first conviction, to distribute child pornography again.
The office also didn’t clarify why a repeat offender, with an “immense” collection of child sexual abuse material, was once again given the minimum legal prison sentence.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="25118 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=25118">1 Comment
I seriously wonder how these judges come up with the shortest sentences for these sick humans. I have zero faith in our judicial system