07:05 AM PDT on Tuesday, October 5, 2004

Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. -- A man convicted of producing child pornography for distribution over the Internet was sentenced to more than 50 years in prison.

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Robert Earl Smith, 53, of Eugene pleaded guilty last month to sexual abuse and sodomy involving an infant who was less than a year old.

Deputy Lane County District Attorney Debra Vogt told the judge Monday that a life term for Smith is the only way to ensure he won't harm other children.

Vogt said Smith used encryption software to hide computer images of child pornography, converted space in his attic for storing and using the pornography for his sexual gratification, and wrote fictional stories about kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing small children.

In e-mail exchanges with an undercover investigator, Smith, who used "naughtygrampa" as an Internet screen name, encouraged the officer to abuse a young child. Smith also wrote that he only abuses very young children because they can't tell on him.

"He admitted he had always had an interest in child pornography," Vogt told Lane County Circuit Judge Karsten Rasmussen. "He said he enjoyed the fantasy and titillation of child pornography."

A search warrant served at Smith's home and office turned up evidence that he photographed himself sexually abusing a very young girl and distributed the images on the Internet, Vogt said.

Defense lawyer John Halpern told the judge that Smith suffers a yet-to-be discovered kind of mental disorder brought on by Internet use.

Halpern described the images that Smith photographed, manipulated and transmitted as "obviously extremely repugnant." However, he said that prior to the Internet, Smith could not so easily have yielded to a weakness for child pornography.

Halpern said Smith has led an otherwise exemplary life and has the support of his family.

In his statement to the judge, Smith said the photos he produced were intended to be shocking and were used "in a situation where it is accepted, encouraged, applauded."

He added: "I have never had any sexual desire for underage children. "I have somewhat framed myself. It was created to be shocking. I never tried to sexually gratify myself with a child."