Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
(KSL News) A man convicted of multiple counts of child pornography and weapons charges could spend the next 60 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors say Wayne Bergeson devoted his days to watching videos of child pornography; one of those videos was three hours long. They say by watching those videos, he was directly involved in harming kids.
Bergeson also had guns in his house, but was not allowed to have them because he's a convicted felon.
Assistant Attorney General Paul Amann said, "Offenders, such as Mr. Bergeson, who are out there looking at child porn should be on notice that we're going to be coming for you."
Defense attorney Justin Roberts said, "He downloaded things off the Internet. Nobody should do that, nobody should possess that, nobody should possess those movies, but I don't think he was out preying on society in general."
Bergeson's attorney says investigators used a program to hack into Bergeson's computer. He filed a motion to suppress the evidence, which a judge denied. Roberts said he may appeal.
He was convicted by a jury in October of 11 second-degree felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and five second-degree felony counts of possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person. Bergeson was convicted in 1980 of forcible sex abuse and kidnapping.
According to court documents, in January of 2007 the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force had to make a forced entry into Bergeson's home after receiving information that he was downloading child pornography.
During the search of the home ICAC agents found five guns and ammunition. They also found numerous child pornography videos that included bestiality and sexual abuse with children as young as two years old.
Bergeson could not possess weapons because he is a convicted felon but he was not on the Sex Offender Registry because his convictions occurred before the registry laws were in place.
