Longview Man Sentenced to 240 Years for Child Pornography

LONGVIEW � A Longview man has been sentenced to 240 years in prison for child pornography after two of his computers and three hard drives were seized by federal and local law enforcement. According to KETK, Harrison County District Attorney Coke Solomon says the Longview Police Department worked with the Tyler Secret Service agency to track down Karl Patrick Houlditch. Solomon says that was after they discovered he had over 3,000 videos and images of child pornography through a file sharing program on his computer. �During the investigation the federal government and a law enforcement officer over in Gregg County… were able to go back to Karl Houldtich�s computer over the internet and verify that he had a significant amount of child pornography,� said Solomon.

Following the investigation, the case was turned over to the Harrison County Criminal District Attorney�s Office for prosecution because Houlditch kept residence in Harrison County. Houlditch opted not to go before a jury and pleaded guilty to 30 counts of possession of child pornography. Although the District Attorney pushed for the maximum of ten years per count, the judge sentenced Holditch to eight years per count to be served consecutively, for a total of 240 years.

Although Houlditch is now behind bars, officials say he is not the only one involved. Solomon says he is sure Houlditch distributed the material but he was not charged for that. �He’s not actually charged with distributing the files because we can�t actually prove that he distributed any of the files. But his file system was open, therefore if an individual wanted to access his computer for that, they could have.� File sharing can involve an unlimited number of people. At this time there is no comment on whether anyone else will be charged in relation to Houlditch�s content.