Texas Man Gets 8 Years for Making Videos Splicing Kids' Faces With Porn Stars' Bodies

A 72-year-old from Corpus Christi is headed to prison after authorities found him in possession of more than 30,000 photos and videos of child pornography, officials said.A U.S. district judge on Monday sentenced Clifford Mecham Jr. to 97 months in prison, citing her need to protect the community and her concern about the fact that Mecham had no idea why what he did was wrong, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.When he was arrested, Mecham possessed more than 31,000 photos and 1,700 videos that he had altered to create child pornography. The Justice Department said Mecham had taken images and videos of porn actors and replaced their faces with those of children.In many of the images, Mecham also morphed male actors faces with his own, the release said, to make it look like he was engaging in sexual acts with the children. The images showed girls who were 5, 10 and 16 years old.Mecham told law enforcement he created the pornography because he thought it was “cute,” according to federal prosecutors.Corpus Christi police initially learned about Mecham potentially possessing child porn in August 2018, when a computer repair technician who had worked on Mecham’s computer reported seeing hundreds of images of naked women altered to have children’s faces, court records show.Officers searched Mecham’s home in September, where they found five devices that later yielded more than 33,000 files of child pornography. In an interview after the search, Mecham admitted making the child porn using morphing, and said he knew who the children were and that they were minors.Once his prison sentence is completed, Mecham will serve supervised release for the rest of his life. He will have to register as a sex offender and comply with numerous requirements meant to restrict his access to the internet and children, according to the Justice Department.Mecham is in custody and awaiting transfer to prison.  Continue reading...