A repeat sex offender is facing decades in prison after a Lancaster County jury recently convicted him of possessing hundreds of child-pornography images.
The jury deliberated about an hour Friday afternoon before convicting 47-year-old Todd D. Atkinson on seven felony counts about 5:30 p.m.
Atkinson, convicted in 2011 of indecent assault of a 6-year-old girl, faces a mandatory 25-year prison term because it is a second conviction of child sex abuse.
Lancaster County Judge James Cullen, who presided over the trial, will order sentence after a background check is completed in a couple months.
Atkinson will be required to register his whereabouts with police, under Megan’s Law, for the rest of his life.
Atkinson, of Ephrata, has been at Lancaster County Prison since December 2014, without bail, because the latest charges were a violation of probation from the indecent-assault conviction.
During the week-long trial, Assistant District Attorney Janie Swinehart showed jurors more than 500 images, and several videos, of the lewd material found on a USB drive and hard drive Atkinson used at his wife’s catering business in Akron.
Atkinson didn’t testify, but presented a number of defense theories, including a claim that a computer virus resulted in the pornography being downloaded, according to Swinehart.
Pennsylvania State Trooper John Sours filed charges.
MEDIA CONTACT: Brett A. Hambright, 717-295-2041; bhambright@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @BrettHambright