GREENVILLE, Miss — A Mississippi man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in federal prison for producing sexually explicit images with minors and posting them on the dark web, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
According to court documents, 36-year-old Paul Burk, III, from Corinth, Mississippi, recorded child pornography using minors under the age of 10 and posted them on platforms on the dark web, an oftentimes untraceable and anonymous section of the internet.
The victims were identified through a partnership between the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Following a sentencing hearing, Chief U.S. District Judge Debra M. Brown ordered Burk to serve the full 30 years in prison, followed by probation for the rest of his life.
“The depraved conduct of this defendant inflicted horrific damage upon innocent lives, for which he was appropriately sentenced to the maximum possible penalty in this case,” said U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner.
The DOJ said Burk victimized multiple children, but did not specify the full extent of his actions.
“The suffering these children have endured is unimaginable,” stated Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “I am grateful for our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI. We cannot give these children back what their abuser has taken from them, but we have at least started them on the road to healing.”
The FBI and the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Parker S. King prosecuted the case.
