U.S. man sentenced after sharing child porn in chat room

A Wichita, Kansas, man Tuesday was sentenced to 19 years in prison after sharing child pornography videos in a Yahoo chat room, the Department of Justice said.

Steven C. Perrine, 53, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. He was convicted in June on one count of distributing child pornography, one count of receiving child pornography, one count of possessing child pornography and one count of unlawfully possessing a firearm after a felony conviction.

Perrine was on probation for a prior conviction for the sexual exploitation of a minor when he was arrested in this case, U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren of the District of Kansas said in a press release.

Law enforcement officers found seven computer hard drives containing "thousands" of images containing child pornography during a search of Perrine's home, Melgren said.

Perrine played videos containing child pornography to another Yahoo user in a chat room in September 2005, the Justice Department said. The second user, located in Pennsylvania, alerted police there, and investigators tracked the videos to Perrine, the Justice Department said.

On Dec. 22, investigators served a search warrant at Perrine's home, where they seized firearms as well as two computers containing images of child pornography, the Justice Department said.

Perrine pleaded guilty on Oct. 14, 2003, to the sexual exploitation of a child charge.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.