Reuters News Wire (reuters@telecom-digest.org) Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:46:03 -0600

Review Index Sorted By: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ] Next message: Associated Press News Wire: "New Computer Worm Attacks Business PCs" Previous message: David Kravets, AP : "Showdown Looms Over Telecom Spying" TELECOM Digest: Home Page

A former chief executive of a financial printing firm was sentenced on Friday to 15 months in prison for possessing child porn and erasing thousands of seedy computer files when he learned he was under investigation. Robert Johnson, 61, downloaded the pornography onto a company computer while chief executive officer of Bowne & Co. Inc. He pleaded guilty to possessing at least two child porn images in August. Johnson, who had been publisher of Long Island's Newsday from 1986 to 1994, resigned from Bowne & Co. and gave up his seat on New York state's education board in July 2004 when learning of the investigation. Johnson, who also admitted using a computer program called "Evidence Eliminator" to destroy the hard drives on the company computer, made a tearful plea to U.S. District Judge Richard Howell, saying the pressure of being Bowne's CEO caused him to become severely depressed. "I decided to escape," said Johnson, whose lawyer said he logged onto child pornography Web sites late at night from his office computer and was alleged by federal authorities to have downloaded a movie called "Real Child Rape." "I decided to go to fantasy because reality was too much to bear," he said. Howell, who said Johnson took part in a "detestable subculture," also noted his history of community service as a reason for the sentence of 15 months prison that was less than what federal prosecutors wanted. The judge also fined Johnson $50,000. Johnson will also have to undergo a sex-offender treatment program. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html

Post Followup Article	Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Associated Press News Wire: "New Computer Worm Attacks Business PCs"
Go to Previous message: David Kravets, AP : "Showdown Looms Over Telecom Spying"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page