Hanover Man Convicted On 5 Counts Of Child Porn

HANOVER, MD — A Hanover man was convicted Thursday by an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court jury on five counts of possession of child pornography. Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Wes Adams announced the verdict against Korey Vaughn Hamilton Payne, 21.

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 Korey Payne's mother, where Payne 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. Payne told officers the area was his studio workspace.

"This is not a victimless crime," Adams said in a statement. "It's impossible to imagine the trauma children are put through to create such disturbing content, and the consumption of these images will only drive the market. I want to thank the police and their I.T. experts who assisted my office in prosecuting this case."

Payne faces up to 25 years in prison for the convictions. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled.

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