Crime & Safety
Ex-Alabama Principal Gets Prison For Soliciting Minor For Prostitution
Authorities say Brett Kirkham, of Tuscaloosa, exchanged explicit photos with the child and later paid for sex acts when the child turned 16.
TUSCALOOSA, AL — A former Birmingham-area middle school principal was sentenced Thursday in federal court to more than 30 years in prison for enticing a minor to engage in prostitution and having child pornography.
Brett Kirkham, of Tuscaloosa, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Scott Coogler. Kirkham, 41, was a principal at Hueytown Middle School and also served as a human resources director for Jefferson County schools.
Authorities said Kirkham had sex with a student in two counties. He was once the student's principal at the school, records showed, and Kirkham began sending the child messages on social media in 2011. He exchanged explicit photos with the student, according to Kirkham’s plea agreement. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)
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Kirkham reached out to the student via social media two years later after the child turned 16 years old. The two met several times and Kirkham paid the child hundreds of dollars to engage in sex acts, according to the government’s sentencing memorandum.
Kirkham was arrested after a search of his home last year. Authorities found more than 700 images and nearly 200 videos of child pornography. Among them were images of the enticement victim and a second former student, according to the sentencing memorandum. Other child pornography he had involved three children in Mississippi.
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He has been jailed since the arrest and pleaded guilty March. In return, prosecutors agreed to drop state charges.
In an unrelated case, former University of Alabama music professor Nikos Pappas, 41, of Tuscaloosa, pleaded guilty Thursday to child pornography charges as well.
Pappas entered his plea before Judge Coogler. He faces up to two decades behind bars at his sentencing, which hasn't yet been scheduled.
Parents and educators should be on the lookout for potential inappropriate relationships developing in school or over the internet, Acting U.S. Attorney Robert Posey said in a release.
“Sexual predators often abuse a position of trust to meet, exploit and sexually abuse children,” he said.
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