Former Columbus executive pleads guilty to child porn charges. What agents found on his phone
A former executive in a historic Columbus family business has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and faces up to 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced next year, authorities said.
Edward Sprouse Boyd Sr., 49, pleaded Tuesday to one count of possessing child pornography.
U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land set Boyd’s sentencing for Jan. 23. Besides prison time, Boyd is subject to supervised release for the rest of his life, a $250,000 fine and sex offender registration.
Before his arrest in 2020, Boyd was a vice president at his family’s business, Goldens’ Foundry and Machine Company, which dates back to 1882.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents raided Boyd’s Carson Drive home on Aug. 20, 2020, after the social media platform MeWe submitted several tips to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, also known as the NCMEC, about uploads of suspected child porn.
Boyd’s account had images of nude girls, as well as child-centered sexually explicit chats with other users, investigators said.
“Eighteen electronic devices were seized during the execution of the warrant, to include a cell phone belonging to Boyd,” federal prosecutors wrote in a news release.
They said the cell phone contained 5,047 images and 1,157 videos of “child abuse material” and 10,643 images and 1,013 videos that were “child exploitative/age difficult.”
The GBI sent the images to the NCMEC to determine whether the subjects could be identified, and the center identified those in 125 of the still-image files and 30 video files, authorities said.
The case later was forwarded from state prosecutors to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Georgia, which led to Boyd’s plea in federal court.
This story was originally published October 25, 2023 at 10:12 AM.