FORMER MICROSOFT EMPLOYEE SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR POSSESSING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY AT WORK
JOHNATHON KINGSTON, 34, of Renton, Washington was sentenced to 18 months in prison today in U.S. District Court in Seattle for Possessing Child Pornography. District Judge John C. Coughenour also ordered KINGSTON to be on supervision for a term of three years after his release from prison.
According to Court documents:
a. In March of 2003, a Network Investigator working for Microsoft, Inc., was reviewing the Microsoft network for unusual file transfers and web activity concerning Microsoft employees. The investigator discovered a download of pornographic content relating to young boys on the computer of JOHNATHON C. KINGSTON, a Microsoft employee at the time.
b. KINGSTON later admitted that he had been browsing the Internet for material involving the spanking of children and that he had been downloading child pornography onto his work computer for quite some time.
c. There were several graphic movie files and over 175 images of young boys engaged in sexually explicit conduct on KINGSTON'S computer. Sexually explicit conduct generally refers to explicit sexual acts or the lewd and lascivious display of the children's private parts. Many of these visual images involved prepubescent children and children under the age of twelve years.
Generally, the use of a computer and the possession of several images of prepubescent children are aggravating factors applied at sentencing.
For additional information please contact Emily Langlie, Public Affairs Officer for the United States Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington at (206) 553-4110.
