A Port Wentworth man has received 10 years of probation for his guilty plea last week to computer pornography.
Eric Scholl was arrested by Effingham County sheriff’s deputies in August 2012 and charged with downloading several images of child pornography. He was sentenced to 10 years probation, with sentences to run concurrently with the first count.
Deputies charged Scholl with downloading several images and videos of child pornography, with children under the age of 8 in some of the material. He shared the images with a computer that had a flagged internet protocol address in Effingham County. His computers were seized as evidence.
Scholl had been indicted earlier this year on three counts of distributing child pornography and also had been ordered to undergo a mental evaluation to determine his competency at the time he committed the acts.
A Savannah man also indicted for sexual exploitation entered an Alford plea last week in Effingham County Superior Court.
Christopher Hadel will serve 10 years of probation and also will be banished from Effingham County under the sentencing. Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit to all the facts of the case but is found guilty by the court.
Hadel was indicted in June of four counts of sexual exploitation of children, charged with distributing computer images depicting minors involved in sexually explicit material.
ECSO investigators were alerted that Hadel was downloading and sharing child pornography. They traced the IP address to a home in Chatham County and discovered Hadel shared the material with a computer in Effingham.
At the time of his arrest, the ECSO stated investigators found more than 100 pictures and videos of child pornography on his computer.
An Effingham County man charged with several counts of child molestation and exploitation was indicted by a grand jury and was denied bond Wednesday.
Brandon Fanning was indicted Monday after being charged with four counts of aggravated child molestation and one count each of sexual exploitation of a child, computer sexual exploitation of children, child molestation, statutory rape and computer or electronic pornography.
Grand jurors also returned an indictment on George Antwon Perry. Perry was charged with two counts of murder, one count of aggravated assault and one count of possession of firearm during the commission of crime for the July shooting death of his cousin, Christopher Williams.
