Blackfoot man gets prison for child porn

A Blackfoot man will spend eight years behind bars after authorities discovered child pornography on his computer after a cruise.

U.S. District Judge John Antoon II gave Gary Lee Reed, 47, a federal prison sentence Thursday, the Middle District of Florida of the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Reed pleaded guilty to the charge of transporting child pornography Feb. 28.

Customs and Border Protection officers discovered thousands of images and videos of child pornography on Reed’s laptop computer during a secondary inspection of his luggage. At the time of the inspection, Reed was returning to Port Canaveral, Fla., aboard a cruise ship that had recently sailed to the Bahamas.

This case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.