Silicon Valley man sentenced for massive child porn collection
A man has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison for having one of the largest collections of child pornography ever found in Silicon Valley, federal officials said Tuesday.
Paul Lawrence Vella, 60, was sentenced to 59 months in prison, which will be followed by seven years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty in August to possession of child pornography.
According to federal prosecutors, the Morgan Hill resident had 82,284 images and 2,192 videos of child porn on his computer and other electronic storage devices.
The cache was “one of the largest collections of child pornography ever discovered in Silicon Valley,” the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of California said in a news release.
The photos and videos depicted “the forcible rape of, and other sadistic violence against, very young children,” the release said. Federal officials said they recognized 915 victims from Vella’s collection.
Vella has been in custody since he pleaded guilty Aug. 4. He is required to pay $29,500 in restitution and participate in a sex offender treatment program.
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