Salt Lake man convicted of possessing porn

A "simple" possession case should send a "clear message" to people who download Internet child pornography and then attempt to avoid prosecution by deleting the material from their hard drives, according to Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

A Salt Lake man paroled from the Utah State Prison five years ago was found guilty of possession of child pornography in federal court Friday.

Jeffrey Tucker had completed a state sentence for sexual abuse of a child in 1996. While he was on parole in 1998, officers — acting on suspicion of a possible parole violation — searched his residence and computer and found pictures of child pornography.

Tucker admitted to viewing at least several hundred images of children between the ages of 10 and 12 engaged in sexual acts and poses.

But Tucker's attorneys argued that he only "viewed" the pictures and did not "possess" them.

Tucker told investigators he always deleted the files when he "was done" because "it's like there's always new ones," according to court documents.

Officers recovered the deleted photographs from an Internet Explorer cache file and the computer hard drive's recycle bin.

U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell ruled that Tucker was clearly in "knowing" possession of child pornography.

"The Internet did not cause the images to be on Tucker's computer; Tucker volitionally reached out for them," she said. "This is not a case of ignorance, mistake or accident. He would not know to delete the files if he did not know that he possessed them."

Tucker could be sentenced to up to five years in federal prison for the possession offense.

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