RIDGWAY — A Johnsonburg man was sentenced on Monday to incarceration in state prison after pleading guilty to five charges relating to the possession of child pornography.
Thomas Bernard Mahaffey, 57, will spend the next four to 12 years in state prison after being sentenced by President Judge Richard A. Masson in a 2015 child porn case.
In May of 2015, an image was uploaded to Google’s photo service; through knowledge of the IP address, law enforcement officials were led to Mahaffey’s home.
In executing a search warrant, law enforcement officials found a laptop belonging to Mahaffey that contained three files depicting child pornography.
Mahaffey was charged with three felony counts of sexual abuse of children, a felony charge of criminal use of a communication facility, and a felony charge of distribution of pornography.
He pleaded guilty to all five charges on March 18.
Mahaffey was originally scheduled to appear for sentencing on Sept. 2, however a ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court impacted the case. Prior to September, Mahaffey was looking to face a minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years, however the Supreme Court ruled that this minimum mandatory sentence was unconstitutional in these types of cases.
Mahaffey’s sentencing date was rescheduled for Monday.
The Commonwealth was represented in the case by Jessel August Costa III, an attorney with the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General.
Costa said the Commonwealth had no position on sentencing and would leave the decision up to the court. He added that Mahaffey was determined not to be a sexually violent predator and that Mahaffey cooperated through the investigation and took full responsibility for the incident.
Prior to being sentenced by Masson, Mahaffey was afforded the opportunity to address the court.
“I know what I did was wrong,” Mahaffey said, adding that he “found God within the past three months.”
Mahaffey said there was no justification for his behavior, adding he hoped that Masson would see that he has changed.
For his part, Masson said he considered many factors in determining an adequate sentence, including Mahaffey’s age and criminal record. Mahaffey was previously convicted of child molestation and sentenced to five years to 20 years of incarceration.
Given the long time between incidents, Masson said he believes Mahaffey is capable of being supervised in the community. However, Masson added that a sentence without a period of incarceration would be inappropriate.
Masson said people that produce child pornography victimize the most vulnerable section of the community and commit “violent, heinous crimes.”
While Mahaffey did not have any direct contact with any children, Masson said that having people to view the content is an important precursor for people making the content.
He added that a sentence without incarceration would diminish the seriousness of the offenses.
Masson said it was important to find a sentence to show that these acts “cannot and will not be tolerated.”
For the charge of distribution of pornography, Mahaffey was sentenced to three years to 10 years at the State Diagnostic and Classification Center in Pittsburgh; he was also assessed $400 as the cost of prosecution.
For the three counts of sexual abuse of children, he was sentenced to one year to two years of incarceration; these sentences will run concurrent to each other but consecutive to the distribution sentence.
Finally, for the criminal use of a communication facility charge, he was sentenced to five years of probation, which will be consecutive to the previous sentences.
Mahaffey was represented in this case by court-appointed attorney Beau Matthew Grove.
