Examiner image
More than two years after it was first revealed that Alan Wayne Kay, of Jefferson County, was sending and receiving graphic images depicting the sexual battery of children under the age of 10 years old, the man who was sharing self-produced pornography of his own child online was sentenced to serve 10 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Kay stood before Jefferson County Criminal District Judge John Stevens on March 1, requesting deferred probation for the crimes he admitted committing – half-heartedly, according to prosecutor Kim Duchamp, who explained that Kay’s confession was more akin to “I’m sorry I got caught,” rather than “I’m sorry I did it.”
According to evidence admitted in court, Kay first came under police scrutiny in November 2020, when a search warrant was executed at his home uncovering upwards of 87 images and 43 videos “that were certain to be child pornography,” Duchamp explained. “There were others that we could not determine,” but were also suspected child pornography.
Not sufficiently sorry for the 2020 crimes that resulted in the five charges of promoting child pornography being heard before Judge Stevens on March 1, Kay was arrested for possessing child pornography in 2021, as well. As revealed in correspondence from the Texas Attorney General, and supported by evidence offered in court, Kay was arrested in April 2021 pursuant to a CyberTipline report referred from The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children involving the upload of child pornography to a social media account. Duchamp clarified that Kay sent the child pornography – of Kay’s own child – to a man he friended on Facebook.
In an attempt to defray culpability, Kay’s lawyer offered up that his client only sent the child pornography to one person – referenced in court only as “Herman.”
“They were sending videos back and forth to each other,” the defense attorney detailed. According to him, “Herman” called Kay to say he lost the child pornography the defendant had previously sent, and requested that he send it again. So, Kay sent the child pornography again. Kay later told an investigator with the Jefferson County Probation Office that he “thought he erased it.”
Kay expressed that he never met Herman in person, and only knew him as “a guy in St. Louis.”
To be clear, the prosecutor interjected, “Herman was not the only person (Kay) was communicating with.” According to Duchamp, “There is absolutely photos and videos ... of his own child,” and these pornographic images are circulated with more than just Herman, and over a long period of time. “Most of these were images and videos of children being sexually assaulted repeatedly.”
“They’re all pre-pubescent children,” the prosecutor added, the approximate age averaging between 6 and 8 years old. One of the victims is an adult now, and supported Kay in his bid for probation. The lack of a cooperative victim has limited the charges the state can pursue in regards to those crimes, Duchamp said.
“Who makes pornography of their own child and distributes it?” the judge dismayed from the bench. “I cannot even fathom the thought of that.”
Kay told the judge that he was a sick man, and fell into the disease by chance, seeking out child pornography at first, then, “after I received the first couple,” Kay said he was inspired to create his own child pornography.
“I’ve got a disease,” Kay said. “I need help.”
During the two years Kay has been free to seek help for his disease, none could be found he said, although he tried online assistance once.
“Disease or not, your disease has been festering for years,” the judge admonished. “And, until this day, you have done nothing about this disease.”
Hanging his head in shame, Kay voiced: “I realize it was the wrong thing to do and shouldn’t have done it.
“I am grateful that I did get caught so that it doesn’t happen anymore.”
Pursuant to an agreement that Kay plead guilty to all the charges posed against him, the state accepted a sentencing recommendation allowing a range of punishment from probation to 10 years in prison on each charge to run concurrently. After taking a long breath to take in the totality of the case, Stevens was ready to administer sentencing.
“This is so foreign to any sense of decency,” Stevens said before sentencing Kay to serve the maximum prison time allowed under the plea agreement. “Every child here was victimized ... not only (in the creation of the pornography) but every time it’s distributed. This is the gift that keeps on giving; there’s no way you can put the genie back in the bottle. Your child goes through the rest of their life being victimized; the harm never ends when this happens.
“This is pure evil.”