By Mossy Grey | AuxBeacon News Contributor

A retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel will not be released from prison until he’s in his 90s after he was sentenced on child pornography charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Appearing Thursday at federal court in Asheville, North Carolina, Paul Delavan Knoke was sentenced on the multiple charges to which he had pleaded guilty, U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray said in a news release.

The 77-year-old Asheville resident was sentenced to 180 months (15 years) in prison, and there is no parole in a federal sentence, according to the news release.

“For decades, Knoke inflicted horrific and sustained sexual abuse upon innocent children entrusted in his care,” Murray said in the release. “When Knoke wasn’t physically abusing children, he was turning to a digital screen to view and share child pornography. As result of the 15-year sentenced imposed today, there will be one less sexual predator among us.”

Should Knoke be released from prison when he is 92, he will then face supervised release for the rest of his life as a registered sex offender, according to the news release.

An investigation showed that the retired Air Force veteran “possessed an extensive collection of sexually explicit images of minor males which he had shared with other offenders,” according to the news release. This discovery was made after law enforcement learned Knoke was watching child porn online, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Investigators estimate he committed more than 1,500 contact offenses against children in his care.

Read more here: https://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article229972474.html#storylink=cpy
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