SEOUL — When Pvt. Francis Parker loaned his iPod to a fellow soldier last year as they guarded former U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. B.B. Bell’s house, he was sharing more than music.
That iPod contained approximately 50 pictures of young girls, some half-dressed, others naked. After the soldier reported the pictures, investigators searched Parker’s barracks room at U.S. Army Garrison-Yongsan and found about 110 video files of child pornography on his computer.
Parker, a member of the United Nations Honor Guard, was sentenced Tuesday to two years of imprisonment, given a dishonorable discharge and reduced in rank to E-1 for downloading and keeping the pictures between October 2006 and August 2007. He was also sentenced for having sexually explicit conversations online with young girls, sometimes after telling them that he was female, and for exposing himself and masturbating in front of them via webcam between January and June 2007.
Parker, 23, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography and six counts of taking indecent liberties and indecent communication with a child, as part of a plea bargain that capped his prison sentence at two years. Fourteen related counts were dropped.
Parker, who was tried by judge alone, said he had been in therapy since December 2007 and hadn’t viewed child pornography since the investigation into his case began eight months ago.
"Ma’am, I really am sorry. I’m not a horrible person," he told Col. Donna Wright, the military judge, during his sentencing hearing.
Prosecutor Capt. Luke Tillman said Parker cataloged the images in at least 29 folders on his computer under the names of different girls, and told at least one girl in an Internet chat that he was in the U.S. Army.
Parker was the subject of two Article 15 hearings in May and July 2007 for offenses including disrespecting officers, violating orders and dereliction of duty, but he still re-enlisted in September 2007.
Parker has been restricted from using the Internet without supervision for the past eight months, prosecutor Capt. Blake Williams said.
