Plainview man sentenced to 20 years in child porn case

The mother of a girl whose sexual abuse was recorded then spread over the internet wrote that people who consume images of child sexual abuse play an active role in the abuse of children.

They not only create a market for the materials but also encourage abusers to inflict even more violent and degrading acts on victims such as her daughter, whose torment ended when police discovered a video depicting her abuse, she wrote.

However, while her daughter's physical abuse ended, the psychological scars remain. Worse, her daughter will have to live the rest of her life knowing those videos are still on the internet being traded and enjoyed by people like Jacob Cody Penton.

Penton was sentenced to 20 years in prison during a July 21 hearing. During the hearing, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix said the evidence against Penton showed that he needed to protect the community and handed down the maximum sentence.

"You are a child predator," Hendrix told Penton.

Penton was arrested Jan. 19 and is being held at the Bailey County Jail. He pleaded guilty in March to a count of receipt and distribution of child pornography. The charge carries a punishment of five to 20 years in prison.

His pre-sentencing report recommended a sentencing guideline of 235 to 240 months in prison. Penton was not accused of producing child pornography but investigators found evidence that he sexually abused a 13-year-old family member twice, though in the second attempt, the girl escaped from him.

Penton's charges stem from a Texas Department of Public Safety investigation in July that started when he was flagged as a potential sex offender during a March undercover operation by the United Kingdom National Crime Agency.

Between March 2 and April 15, 2021, undercover agents reportedly spoke with Penton through the messaging application KiK.

"I love 6 and 10 lol young young," Penton reportedly wrote to the agents.

Logs of the messages showed that Penton reportedly admitted to sexually abusing a teenage family member and admitted that he was sexually attracted to children.

The girl and Penton confirmed the abuse to investigators.

In one message, Penton reportedly wrote that he had access to a 1-year-old girl, but that she was "just not quite old enough" for sexual activity.

After Penton was referred to local authorities, investigators obtained access to his KiK account and sifted through more than 800 images and videos. Investigators identified at least four images of child sexual abuse, which involved children ranging from 3 years old to 13 years old.

Further investigation showed Penton traded hundreds of materials of child sexual abuse with other child predators on the internet.

The materials included a video of a man raping a girl as she struggled against him. Another video showed a girl crying as she was being sexually abused by a man.

According to a LinkedIn profile associated with Penton, he is listed as a supervisor of customer service with the United States Postal Service.

His attorney Charles Chambers asked the court for leniency, including a downward departure, citing more than a dozen letters of support filed with the court. None of those people appeared in court to speak on Penton's behalf.

Chambers said his client had a strong support system, a promising career and a lot of potential.

"All of that was tossed away over some images on an electronic device," Chambers said.

Penton told the court he was sorry and would be better.

Prosecutor Callie Woolam told the court that Penton deserved the maximum sentence and read the letter from the mother of a girl abused in one of the videos in Penton's collection.

She wrote that her daughter endured "sadistic torture for someone's idle enjoyment" and is now distrustful of people and is uncomfortable with compliments, saying she associates being pretty as a quality predators seek.

The girl's mother asked the court to punish those who traded and delighted in her daughter's abuse in a way that shows them they weren't involved in a victimless crime.

Hendrix agreed, telling Penton that the materials he traded in weren't "some images."

"Those are real human beings," he said. "It's never just an image. It's never just a child."

He encouraged Penton to use his time in prison to find out what drove his urges.

"Until then we just have to protect the community (from you)."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Plainview man sentenced to 20 years in child porn case