Former minister sentenced to 8 years for child porn

By Julia Cheever, Bay City News Service

June 15, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - A former minister from Minnesota was sentenced in federal court in San Francisco today to eight years and one month in prison for transporting and possessing child pornography.

Mark Godbey Moore, 53, of St. Cloud, Minn., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White. He pleaded guilty before White in March to charges of transporting in foreign commerce and possessing child pornography images.

U.S attorney's office spokesman Luke Macaulay said Moore was formerly a minister with a group called "Extended Grace Ministries" and was affiliated with several overseas orphanages.

Macaulay said Moore was found in possession of more than 1,000 child pornography images during a routine search of his baggage at San Francisco International Airport on Oct. 4, 2005.

At the time, Moore was traveling from Bangkok, Thailand to his home in Minnesota. Macaulay said the pornography included images of prepubescent minors subjected to sadistic and violent conduct.

The spokesman said that as a result of the nature of the images, the sentence is one of the highest ever given in federal court in Northern California for a case in which the defendant was accused of transporting and possessing child pornography but was not accused of having contact with the child victims.

U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan said, "Each depiction of a child in a pornographic act involves the exploitation and abuse of that child, The Department of Justice will use every tool given by Congress to eradicate this horrid crime."

Moore's defense attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Steven Kalar, declined to comment on the case.

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