OAN’s Abril Elfi & James Meyers
6:52 AM – Saturday, September 30, 2023
Former ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek was sentenced to six years for involvement with child pornography.
On Friday, Virginia Federal Judge Claude Hilton handed down the ruling, which was equivalent to one year more than the minimum term that the 54-year-old was seeking.
The Virginia United States Attorney’s Office had reportedly requested that the judge rule a much larger penalty of about 12 and a half to 15 years in prison. However, Meek sought forgiveness as he stated that he accepted responsibility and he had never committed another crime before.
In July, the former reporter pled guilty to transporting and possessing child sexual abuse materials.
Prosecutors argued that Meek “clearly sought out individuals across the internet for the specific purpose of sharing (and expanding) his [Child Sexual Abuse Material] collection for his sexual gratification.”
According to investigators, the 54-year-old had reportedly sent a received videos of “infants and toddlers and content depicting sadistic and masochistic abuse of prepubescent children.”
Prosecutors also showed evidence that Meek would not only sought out minors but present himself as one and was part of a group chat named “C-ks, C-ts, and Kids.”
Reportedly, he also enticed one girl into providing him “at least a dozen screenshots” of her breasts and pubic area, and the feds believe he obtained breast photos of 14- and 15-year-old girls from chats in which he also shared films of himself naked, clutching his genitals.
Prosecutors said that while Meek was in South Carolina in February 2020, he messaged on an online app, sharing and receiving materials that included children under the age of 12, being raped.
Eugene Gorokhov, the reporter’s lawyer, had argued that Meek had a good history and that the conduct was “completely at odds with his proven personal values.”
He then continued by stating that his client was traumatized by the years in which he had to cover the topic of war and that “the toll it took came in the form of his mental health.”
Gorokhov told the press that his client had been a victim of extreme prosecution and was thankful that the judge handing down the ruling could recognize that.
“But the sentence in this case represents a rejection of the picture of Mr. Meek that the government tried to present,” the defense attorney said. “We are grateful to the court for taking a careful look at the facts, accurately assessing those facts, and recognizing that Mr. Meek’s worst moments do not define him.”
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