Registered Sex Offender Gets 17 Years in Prison for Distributing Child Porn

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A Canton resident and registered sex offender has been sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for distributing child pornography.

Billy Gene McCorkle, Jr., 46, will also face lifetime supervised release once he completes his prison sentence, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said in a press release. He pleaded guilty to charges on May 8 and was indicted in December on distributing child pornography charges.

“McCorkle’s choice to continue to exploit children, even as a convicted sex offender has resulted in his exit from society,” said United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates. “Recidivist offenders like this defendant prey on the most innocent in our society who depend on us to protect them. We will continue to prosecute those who traffic in these horrific images and exhibit such blatant disregard for the welfare of young children.”

On Nov. 4, 2013, a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) discovered that McCorkle had accessed a website used to exchange images of child pornography. The next day, the agent, acting in an undercover capacity, sent an email to McCorkle, based on his profile information.

During the email exchange that followed, McCorkle offered and eventually sent child pornography to the undercover agent “depicting a young, nude girl who appeared to be about eight years old,“ the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The subsequent investigation revealed multiple occasions in which McCorkle sent and received files containing child pornography.

On Dec. 13, 2013, HSI special agents arrested McCorkle for distributing child pornography and related offenses. At the time of his arrest, federal agents also seized a cell telephone from McCorkle. Upon searching the phone, agents found more than 13,000 images of child pornography, Yates’s office said.

They also learned McCorkle was a register sex offender, having been previously convicted of child molestation on Feb. 22, 2006.

“The defendant’s repeated sexual exploitation of children is an egregious crime and well deserves this lengthy sentence,” added Ryan L. Spradlin, acting special agent in charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Atlanta. “The distribution of child pornography continues the exploitation of its victims and creates a demand for the further abuse of other children. HSI is grateful to have such a strong partner in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia to aggressively investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of these vile crimes.”