Published: May 11, 2009 09:58 pm      

Ex-child psychologist sentenced

COVINGTON — In a case a federal judge called “disturbing,” a former child psychologist from Rowan County was sentenced Monday to 12 1/2 years in prison for receiving child pornography.

U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning also said he believed the defendant, Chad B. Stafford, was addicted to child porn, and that he believed there was a chance Stafford might have further acted on his sexual obsession with children by actually harming a youngster had he not been arrested in August.

“The protection of the public is the most important factor in a case like this, and I believe this is a case where a lengthy sentence is warranted,” Bunning said.

Stafford, 36, of Morehead, showed no emotion as Bunning sentenced him to 151 months.

Stafford, who has been in custody since his arrest, will receive credit for the time he has already spent behind bars. However, because there is no parole in the federal system, he will not be eligible for early release.

In sentencing Stafford, Bunning cited several bizarre and disturbing elements of the case against him, including the discovery of a nude Barbie-type doll in a hotel room in Ashland the defendant had stayed in 2006. The doll was submerged in water, with its legs, arms and neck bound.

Additionally, Bunning noted that Stafford had downloaded photographs of nude mannequins, the majority of which represented children, on his work computer, and that he had photographed children from inside his home and at local track meets without their knowledge.

The fact that Stafford worked with children at Pathways Inc.’s office in Frenchburg “makes this case even more disturbing, in the court’s view,” Bunning said.

While there was no evidence to indicate Stafford had actually molested a child, Bunning said he did not think it was unreasonable to believe Stafford might have eventually done so had he not been caught.

“I think I can also fairly say that you’re addicted to this type of pornography or else you wouldn’t have had so much of it,” the judge told Stafford.

Stafford was arrested on an indictment charging him with seven counts of knowingly receiving child pornography in interstate commerce and one count of knowingly possessing visual depictions of children engaged in sexual acts that had been shipped in interstate commerce. He subsequently pleaded guilty to one of the charges.

According to court records, Stafford downloaded digitized images of child pornography from the Internet using a peer-to-peer file-sharing program.

Some of the photos depicted children as young as 4 participating in sexual acts, and two of them depicted acts of incest.

FBI Agent Dana Chrisman testified at a bond hearing that the undercover investigation that led to Stafford’s indictment started after agents at the FBI’s Houston office learned Stafford had been downloading child porn. An online search led to Stafford’s computer address and to the images outlined in the indictment.

Agents subsequently served a search warrant at Stafford’s home and located the images among more than 900 others on Stafford’s computer.

Chrisman also testified that Stafford, who was present during the search of his home, told investigators he had been acquiring child pornography for about a year and had sorted the images according to fetish and ranked them.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.