April 13, 2015

Richmond Man Sentenced to 144 Months for Distributing Child Pornography

LEXINGTON—A Richmond man, who previously admitted to making images of child pornography available for download on the Internet, has been sentenced to 144 months in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Joseph M. Hood sentenced 53-year-old Mark Douglas Taylor for distribution of child pornography and ordered him to be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 10 years following his release. Under federal law, Taylor must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.

According to Taylor’s plea agreement, an undercover investigator with the Office of the Kentucky Attorney General, downloaded several files from the Internet that she suspected contained child pornography. Law enforcement later identified Taylor’s computer as the source of the child pornography files. Then, in February 2014, law enforcement executed a search warrant at his residence and located numerous images depicting prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct on his computer.

Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Jack Conway, Kentucky Attorney General; and Howard Marshall, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, jointly made the announcement today.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Office of the Kentucky Attorney General. Assistant U.S. Attorney David A. Marye prosecuted this case on behalf of the federal government.