Vancouver man gets 46 months in child porn case

A Vancouver man was sentenced Monday to 46 months in prison for possessing child pornography he accessed through the Internet.

Richard L. Walsh, 48, was convicted Oct. 9 of three counts of possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Walsh, who was represented by Camas attorney David Schultz, faced a possible sentence of 46 to 61 months under state sentencing guidelines. As part of a plea deal, Deputy Prosecutor Randy St. Clair agreed to dismiss five counts of dealing in child porn and two counts of possession of child porn.

Walsh will be required to serve 36 months of probation and register as a sex offender upon his release.

An undercover FBI database revealed that Walsh shared multiple child pornography digital files between December 2011 and Feb. 13 of this year in a peer-to-peer network on the Internet, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in court.

Peer-to-peer networks allow users connected to the Internet to link their computers and are commonly used for illegal activity, according to the FBI’s website.

Walsh was arrested after Vancouver police served a search warrant Feb. 13 at his home and seized 7,650 image files and 59 video files of child pornography from his digital devices, the affidavit says.