Former Monongahela man sentenced in child porn case

Former Monongahela man sentenced in child porn case
Saturday, July 31, 2010

A federal appeals court has nearly doubled the prison sentence for a former Washington County man who prosecutors say posted on the Internet photographs of him raping and sexually torturing dozens of girls between 4 and 16 years old in Cambodia.

William Irey, 53, chief executive of Lake Buena Vista, Fla.-based Frank Irey Construction, was originally sentenced to 17 1/2 years in federal prison but will now serve a maximum 30-year sentence, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Prosecutors appealed the original sentence, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta ruled the trial judge made a sentencing error.

The appeals court said Mr. Irey, a Monongahela native, created "some of the most graphic and disturbing child pornography that has ever turned up on the Internet."

The Orlando Sentinel reported Mr. Irey took the photos while he was in Cambodia, where, the court said, he preyed on poverty-stricken girls, had sex with them, sexually tortured them and wrote obscene, degrading words on their bodies. Investigators found more than 1,200 images on his computer, the newspaper reported.

Mr. Irey pleaded guilty in July 2007 to one count of employing, using, or enticing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct outside the U.S. to produce a visual depiction of that conduct for the purpose of transporting it to the U.S.

The appeals court, said Mr. Irey stole from the business his father started 50 years earlier and drove Frank Irey Construction into dissolution. The company was named for Mr. Irey's late father, a contractor and longtime Republican Party chairman in Washington County.

post-gazette.com