Child Porn Sentence Imposed On Hanover Man

HANOVER, MD — A Hanover man convicted on five counts of possession of child pornography was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison, prosecutors say. Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Wes Adams said previously that Korey Vaughn Hamilton Payne, 21, faced up to 25 years in prison for the May 4 convictions.

Payne was sentenced to 25 years, with the majority of the term suspended and 18 months of active incarceration, along with five years of supervised probation upon release. He is required to register as a sex offender for 15 years once he is released from prison.

On July 19, 2016, an Anne Arundel County Police detective conducted an online investigation for offenders sharing child pornography online. The detective focused on a specific IP address after establishing it was associated with at least one file known to be of interest to child pornography investigations.

After identifying the IP address as being assigned to the home of Payne's mother, where he lived at the time, police obtained a search warrant for the house. A search turned up external storage devices which contained child pornography next to Korey Payne's ID card and other possessions. He told officers the area was his studio workspace.

"Possession of child pornography is by no means a victimless crime," said Adams in a statement. "Korey Payne's consumption of such disturbing content has a direct impact on the children who are made to suffer in the process of its creation. My office will continue to fight for these victims by ensuring predators such as Payne are brought to justice."

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