Man sentenced to 5 years for child pornography
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By Chris Dumond
Published: July 10, 2008
A Madison Heights man was sentenced to five years in prison this week after being convicted of 177 counts of possession of child pornography.
Corey Dean Meeks, 41, pleaded guilty in March to keeping the images on his computers. He was arrested a year ago, when authorities said he had a yearlong
relationship with a Virginia Beach police officer posing as a 12-year-old girl.
In an earlier interview, Amherst Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Maddox said Meeks sent more than three dozen suggestive images of adults and children to the police officer.
Maddox said Meeks admitted to collecting pornography for five years. Photos found on his computers depicted minors ranging in age from toddlers to young teens, she said.
Amherst County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Chris Smith said a Medical College of Virginia pediatrician noted that at least 800 images appeared to be of underage subjects.
The prosecutor said the sentencing guidelines in Meeks’ case called for as much as 178 years in prison.
Judge J. Michael Gamble sentenced Meeks to 354 years in prison Monday, but suspended all but five years. Gamble ordered Meeks to serve 20 years probation.
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Posted by ( crispy daisy ) on July 17, 2008 at 10:36 am
cosmo says: “Yes, because this approach has worked so well in dealing with illegal drugs and considering the success of Prohibition… who could argue?“
You’re right. And the prohibition against, and punishment for, murder, rape, robbery, child abuse, and every other crime you can think of hasn’t worked, either. None of these crimes has ever been or will ever be eliminated. So the logical answer is to just make everything legal—voila! No more crime!
Your comments about Lynchburgers are just too ridiculous to even respond to.
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Posted by ( crispy daisy ) on July 16, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Cosmo, I don’t have any religious beliefs—that’s yet another incorrect assumption you’ve made about me—so, no, I don’t push them down other people’s throats.
You seem to have this smug belief that all Lynchburgers are exactly alike—Fallwell-worshiping, LU-loving, right-wing bigots who think higher education is a GED and traveling is a trip across the bridge to Madison Heights. Apparently, you are so stuck on that opinion that you will not believe that I, or anyone else from Lynchburg, could possibly be otherwise.
I am an agnostic liberal with gay friends, and I believe that sexual orientation is not something that people choose. I have lived in different parts of the country and have made about a dozen trips to Europe. Except for weddings and funerals, I haven’t been in a church since I was a teenager. Believe it or not, there are others like me in Lynchburg.
My entire point in all of these posts is that child pornography contributes to unimaginably vile acts being committed on children from infants on up, and that people who view it have some responsibility for what is done to those children. You apparently disagree. Fine. I’m sick of talking to you about it.
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Posted by ( crispy daisy ) on July 16, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Cosmo, this is the quote where I mention sacrificing children:
“Regarding this quote from your post: “Pedophilia has always been around. The Greeks built a Golden Age of knowledge and philosophy while diddling around with boys”—ancient cultures used to sacrifice children to the gods, too. Do you think that makes it OK?“
What I meant by that is do you think sacrificing children in the name of religion would be OK now since it had been done hundreds and thousands of years ago. I ask that because your comment makes it sound as though pedophilia is no big deal because it’s always been around. And your comment about the ancient Greeks “diddling around with boys” makes it sound like a harmless pastime.
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Posted by ( crispy daisy ) on July 16, 2008 at 11:08 am
Cosmo, your 9:53 comment was apparently posted while I was still responding to your 8:13 post. Several of the things you mention in your last post are addressed in my previous reply, such as your assumptions that I enjoy porn and that I have a problem with anyone who is not heterosexual.
When I said I don’t have a problem with porn if it involves willing adults, that’s what I meant. It means I don’t think it’s OK to use under-age girls or girls that have been coerced into it.
I can’t tell you how offended I am by your statement that you think I think this guy should be punished for his sexual orientation and that using the excuse of children being brutalized is just a red herring. You don’t know anything about me, yet you assume that I don’t care about children being raped, only that people with different sexual orientations are locked up.
If no real children were ever used for porn, and 100% of child porn were Pixar-style animations, I would not think people should be jailed for it. It would make me sick that it existed, but if it didn’t involve real children, people shouldn’t be subject to imprisonment for creating it or looking at it.
As for what this guy did being a “thought crime”, it’s not. He is helping to fuel the demand for child pornography that relies on the brutalization of children. His “sexual orientation” feeds on the sexual abuse of children.
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Posted by ( crispy daisy ) on July 16, 2008 at 10:18 am
cosmo, you classify this guy as just someone “looking at pictures”. You don’t think he should be jailed for it.
People looking at child porn is what feeds the demand for it. If people like this guy didn’t look at it, other people wouldn’t make money from raping and otherwise sexually abusing children for porn. Demand feeds supply. This guy is part of the reason child porn is such big business, and there’s nothing harmless about it. It’s not just “looking at pictures”.
Did you see anywhere in my post that I like porn? I don’t watch, read or look at porn. I don’t like it. If willing adults want to participate in porn with other willing adults, though, that’s a decision they’re old enough to make for themselves.
I also did NOT say that others who don’t choose their sexual orientation are “evil incarnate”. Some of my closest friends are gay, and I’ve never had the slightest problem with homosexuality. When sexual orientation contributes to children being harmed in unspeakable ways, I do have a problem with it. Pedophilia isn’t a harmless sexual orientation; children are brutalized as a result of it. Some people have an overwhelming need to kill other people or torture animals—just because they were born that way doesn’t make it OK.
I agree with you about starving children being an overwhelming, gut-wrenching tragedy, and I do my small part to try to help. The fact that there are so many children starving to death, though, doesn’t lessen the horrifying consequences of children being violently victimized for porn.
No matter what you say, this man deserves to be in jail for the part he’s played in children being used for sexual gratification.
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Posted by ( Chico1 ) on July 15, 2008 at 6:47 pm
cosmo
are you saying that it is okay to molest children because it has been going on since the begining of time? How do you know this guy hasn’t molested a child are you psychic?
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Posted by ( crispy daisy ) on July 15, 2008 at 5:22 pm
cosmo, I submitted a comment that may not make it past the moderator, so I’ll clean this one up a little bit.
Porn involving consenting adults—in any combination of sexes—doesn’t bother me.
I’m quite sure that men like this one didn’t choose to find pictures of sex with children to be stimulating, but that doesn’t excuse the horrific things done to children in order for them to find gratification.
For there to be photos or video of grown men having sex with TODDLERS and young children, those toddlers and young children had to have been raped or otherwise sexually abused while someone was photographing them. I have also read about porn involving infants as young as a few weeks old being raped by grown men. It rips apart their insides. Do you think these children are willing participants?
Looking at the pictures of children being sexually violated may not be quite as bad as doing the violating, but because there are people willing to pay to look at those photos and videos, other people are going to continue to record unspeakable things being done to children to meet the demand.
I can’t remember ever seeing someone defend child pornography before—it’s really disturbing to think that you find it harmless.
Regarding this quote from your post: “Pedophilia has always been around. The Greeks built a Golden Age of knowledge and philosophy while diddling around with boys”—ancient cultures used to sacrifice children to the gods, too. Do you think that makes it OK?
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Posted by ( Chico1 ) on July 15, 2008 at 11:07 am
As we all know in Amherst County it is totally okay to molest a child or have child porn. Young children are molested every day and because they are “too young to testify” the sick perverts get away with it. Five years is nothing this guy is probably already molested kids and will continue to do so for the rest of his life.
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Posted by ( crispy daisy ) on July 15, 2008 at 9:36 am
Cosmo, I’m not sure I understand your point. Are you saying that you think five years is too much for this guy?
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Posted by ( Gladys ) on July 13, 2008 at 11:04 pm
This guy is one sick puppy.
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