Court: Child Porn Sentence Sticks

An Atlanta federal appeals court upheld the prison sentence of a 49-year-old Kennesaw ear, nose and throat doctor convicted of distributing child pornography.

In March, Dr. Andrew Sutton was sentenced to eight years in prison. He challenged the length of the sentence, but the appeals court said Sutton's offense was “particularly serious because his actions bordered on production of child pornography,” according to the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Sutton once worked for Northwest ENT and Allergy Center, which has locations in Canton and Marietta. He was also the executive medical director for the Cobb County Sheriff's Office.

In May 2010, authorities said Sutton found himself on the other side of the law.

They said he engaged in an online discussion with an undercover law enforcement officer who posed as an adult female with two children. During that discussion, Sutton asked for naked photographs of those children, sent several images of child pornography to the officer and used his web camera to send a picture of himself to the officer.

After the undercover operation, additional images of child pornography on Sutton's home computers and external data storage devices were obtained through a search warrant.

And a forensic analysis revealed that Sutton distributed more images of child pornography before May 2010. He turned himself into Cobb County police on Nov. 15, 2010, but was released the same night on $10,000 bond, according to a report in The Marietta Daily Journal.

He was . Sixteen days later, Sutton was ordered detained.

He pleaded guilty to the charge on Dec. 20, 2011. Upon completion of his prison sentence, Sutton will be under 10 years of supervised release.

“The possession of sexually explicit images of children is a serious crime, but this defendant went beyond that when he distributed these images with the hope of receiving additional sexually explicit materials to add to his collection,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement in March. “We will continue to prosecute these cases and seek significant prison sentences in our effort to eliminate and end the distribution of these despicable images.”