Sex Offender Sentenced to Ten Years for Possession of Child Pornography

Kenneth Jack Hendryx, 58, of Silverton, Idaho, was sentenced on Tuesday in Coeur d’Alene to 10 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography, the United States Attorney’s Office announced. U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns, from the Southern District of California, also ordered Hendryx to serve 15 years of supervised release after he completes his prison term. Hendryx entered a guilty plea in March 2009.

The investigation began in the August 2008 when officers with the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office received information indicating that Hendryx, a registered sex offender, was using the Internet to download videos of children being sexually abused by adults. In September 2008, the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant on Hendryx’s home with the assistance of the FBI. During the search, two computers and numerous external hard-drives were seized. An analysis of the computer media proved that Hendryx had downloaded several thousand sexually explicit images of minors. According to officers, some of the videos showed the sexual abuse of children under the age of five. Agents with the FBI were able to identify some of the children being abused. These children were from Indiana, Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, California, and Washington.

Hendryx is a registered sex offender because of a previous conviction for sexual abuse of a minor under the age of sixteen. According to court documents, Hendryx sexually abused a twelve year old girl when he was forty-one.

U.S. Attorney Tom Moss praised the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office and agents with the FBI. “I am grateful that local, state, and federal law enforcement have made it a priority to investigate those who sexually exploit children. The impact of their efforts is apparent in cases like this one. A convicted sex offender will now be removed from our community. Prison is especially appropriate for those like Mr. Hendryx who continue to re-offend.”