Man convicted of 52 counts of child porn Walkertown man convicted of 52 counts of child pornography.

A Walkertown man was convicted Tuesday on charges that he downloaded and viewed images and videos of child pornography at his home.

John Marvin Newsome Jr., 38, pleaded guilty in Forsyth Superior Court to a total of 52 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor - 31 counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and 21 counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.

Judge Susan Bray of Forsyth Superior Court consolidated everything into 22 counts - 11 counts of the third-degree charges and 11 counts of the second-degree charges - and gave Newsome an active sentence of a minimum of 15 months in prison. Bray suspended everything else and placed Newsome on 36 months of supervised probation.

Assistant District Attorney Pansy Glanton said Forsyth County Sheriff's Office began investigating after receiving a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tip indicated that someone was downloading child pornography from the internet.

Investigators with the sheriff's office determined that Newsome was downloading child pornography and executed a search warrant on his home in the 3100 block of Old Hollow Road.

Glanton said investigators seized cellphones, computers and other items. She said Newsome did not initially cooperate and refused to provide a password for his devices. Newsome eventually turned over his passwords and investigators were able to get images and videos that Newsome had downloaded.

One of the detectives did a forensic evaluation and discovered 500 images and 150 videos of child pornography, Glanton said.

There were images and videos of young children being sexually abused by adults.

Harvey W. Barbee Jr., Newsome's attorney, said that Newsome has taken responsibility for his actions and that he has family support. His mother, father, sister and a neighbor attended the hearing, sitting on the second row in the courtroom.

Newsome has lived with his father since he was released from the Forsyth County Jail and he has sought treatment from Gregory Alan Letourneau, a Winston-Salem sexual-addiction counselor.

When Barbee mentioned Letourneau's name, Bray asked if anyone knew anything about him. She then said she had looked his name up on her computer and discovered that Letourneau had been convicted of insurance fraud.

In February, Letourneau pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of making false statements for insurance benefits. As part of the plea arrangement, Assistant District Attorney Jordan Green dropped felony counts of insurance fraud and obtaining property by false pretenses. Letourneau was given three months of unsupervised probation. He was ordered to pay $1,721 in restitution and $183 in court costs.

Barbee told Bray that he was unaware of Letourneau's conviction.

Barbee said his client has a workable treatment plan and continued support from his family. He said his client is at low risk for re-offending. He asked that Newsome get a probationary sentence.

But Glanton said that Newsome was not simply downloading pornography. He was downloading child pornography, she said.

"Every child in those digital videos was under 15," she said.

336-727-7326@mhewlettWSJ