SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — A man from Seminole County, Florida, was sentenced to 885 years in prison after police found child pornography on his computer.
A judge ordered Shawn Thomas to serve 15 years for each of 59 counts of possession of child pornography.
He was convicted in July.
According to WFTV, state agents originally found out about Thomas after a source came to them saying Thomas’ interest in child pornography had grown.
The informant told police, Thomas posed as a filmmaker to young girls and their families, and planned to rape the underage girls, and then murder them and their families to cover his tracks.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials said Thomas told one family he was a student making an independent film.
In court on Monday, Thomas’ mother went before a judge asking for mercy in her son’s case.
She claimed her son was physically abused by his father, and that her son suffered from depression.
“He would come home from work in a bad mood and just take it out on him. He would pick him up, [and] slam him up against the wall. We have marks in our wall where his head was at,” she said.
Thomas also faces trial on attempted murder and attempted rape charges.
A date has not been determined.
