Nipomo man who had hundreds of images of child porn on seized computer found guilty
A jury convicted a Nipomo man of possessing large volumes of child pornography, the San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Thursday.
John Paul Russell, 53, was convicted of having at least 600 images of child pornography, with at least 10 images including children under the age of 12.
Arroyo Grande Police Department Detective Jim Jolly found evidence that a computer in Atascadero was sharing child pornography while he was working in the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce in June 2018, according to the release. Jolly traced the computer’s IP address to a business in Atascadero.
After receiving a search warrant, Atascadero police officers seized Russell’s computer in July 2018 from his place of work. A digital forensic analysis found thousands of images and some videos of child exploitative materials and child pornography.
“Child pornography is exploitation that causes immeasurable harm to its victims when the material is created, and again each and every time it is viewed by another person,” District Attorney Dan Dow said in the release.
Russell is scheduled to be sentenced on April 21 in the San Luis Obispo Superior Court.
He faces a maximum sentence of five years in jail and will have to register as a sex offender for life.
