All the while, he was teaching teenage boys how to overcome their cycles of sexual abuse. At a previous job with an out-of-state ranch for troubled youth, Thomas was named counselor of the year. While working as a mental health therapist in Utah, his superiors commended him for his ability to relate to the adolescents and help them overcome their predatory impulses.

Deseret News graphic Child pornography Requires Adobe Acrobat.

"A lot of my supervisors encouraged me to pursue a master's degree," Thomas said. "My life was definitely compartmentalized. I was a good employee, very conscientious, very ethical, very dependable. But that was just one compartment of my life."

Away from work, friends and family, Thomas scoured news groups for child pornography, spending an average of five or six hours a day downloading images onto his computer. Between 1998 and 2000, Thomas estimates he downloaded approximately 25,000 images of child pornography.

"It was a solitary activity for me," Thomas said. "I didn't want to talk about it with anyone. . . . In my mind I was able to draw the line and say you (the people producing child pornography) are the bad guys because you produce it. I'm only on the receiving end of this.

"It cut into my social life," he added. "It got to a point where I didn't spend as much time with friends. I didn't spend time on the phone — my phone line was connected to the Internet."

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Lt. Hansen said he doubts child pornography can even be found in magazine stores anymore — it now exists almost exclusively on the Web. Such widespread access via the Internet allows child pornographers to operate in virtual obscurity.

"It's one of those things that is so easy and is so private that I'm not sure we truly know all the people involved with it," Sgt. Don Bell of the Salt Lake police sex crimes unit said.