Turlock man receives federal prison sentence for child porn

A 38-year-old Turlock man on Tuesday was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for receiving and distributing more than 100 child pornography videos, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.

Edward Paul Cragg was convicted of one count of receipt and distribution of child pornography.

Federal prosecutors said evidence in the criminal case showed that Cragg used a file-sharing program to search for and save more than 130 child porn videos from Aug. 1, 2015 through March 1, 2016.

Some of the videos in Cragg’s possession depicted images of infants or toddlers being subjected to sadistic or masochistic abuse, according to prosecutors.

At Cragg’s sentencing hearing Tuesday, Chief U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill said Cragg completely failed to acknowledge what he had done was wrong or criminal, according to prosecutors. The judge described the defendant’s conduct as “beyond destructive” to the victims in those illicit images.

Prosecutors said Cragg must serve 10 years of supervised release upon his release from prison, and he will be required to register as a sex offender. His access to children, computers and the Internet will be restricted.

The judge also ordered Cragg to pay $3,000 to $5,000 in restitution to multiple victims whose images Cragg obtained and made available to others.

This case was the result of an investigation by the Turlock Police Department with help from the Ceres Police Department and the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Gappa and Ross Pearson prosecuted the case.

This story was originally published September 5, 2018 at 7:23 AM.