* This story includes graphic details of child sexual abuse
A federal judge ordered suspended Charleston County magistrate James Gosnell Jr. to register as a convicted sex offender after the 69-year-old pleaded guilty in federal court in Charleston Thursday to possessing and distributing child sexual abuse materials.
Gosnell’s voice was soft as he answered the judge’s questions. But he quickly spoke up after the assistant U.S. Attorney read the facts of the case.
“I want the court to know I never, never ever touched or ever intended to touch a minor,” he said.
Federal investigators say they got a tip last summer after payments linked to Gosnell were made to a known distributor of child sexual abuse materials. Agents then searched his Charleston home and found thousands of images of pornography involving children, including toddlers and infants.
They say they also found messages between Gosnell and a co-conspirator in Florida in which the two talked about raping and torturing children, as well as necrophilia. That man, 57-year-old Richard Badger Thorpe, pleaded guilty and could have testified against Gosnell, who was scheduled to stand trial next month.
“The depths of the darkness revealed in Gosnell’s electronics and messages to his co-conspirator serve as a reminder that evil walks among us, often hiding in plain sight,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina Bryan Stirling after the hearing.
Gosnell served as a magistrate in Charleston County for nearly 30 years, overseeing hearings and signing warrants in the very community he’s accused of preying on.
His attorney, Lionel Lofton, says Gosnell pleaded guilty to two of the nine charges against him to avoid putting his family through a federal trial. He says he’s worried about the former judge dying in prison.
“He’s not an evil person,” said Lofton. “He just did a really stupid thing.”
Gosnell faces 40 years behind bars and will be sentenced at a later date. His co-defendant has yet to be sentenced as well.
