Woman sentenced to 25 years for child porn

Published 12:04 pm Friday, July 24, 2020

A Lexington woman was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison Thursday after making sexually explicit videos of young children in Clark County and Missouri.

Paige Cagle was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Lexington to a single count of using a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct. Cagle pleaded guilty to the charge earlier this year.

According to court documents, officers were alerted to the situation on March 1, 2019, by a Missouri resident who said Cagle shared explicit images of a 2-year-old child being sexually abused. Cagle had since moved to Lexington, where federal officers located and interviewed her.

Email newsletter signup

In the affidavit completed by Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Michael Romagnoli, Cagle said she was sexually abused as a child and that was why she looked at child porn online. She also said she kept a Dropbox folder and shared her password with other people so they could upload sexually explicit images of children for her to see.

She admitted to creating explicit videos of children being abused, including three which she filmed while staying in Clark County and two in Missouri. She also said she uploaded the videos to her Dropbox account.

The child was abused beginning when it was nine months old and continued until it was about 18 months old, Romagnoli said. Cagle also said she possessed explicit images of other children.

Cagle could have received up to 30 years in prison.

Cagle must serve at least 85 percent of the sentence and will be on supervised probation for the rest of her life, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

“The defendant’s production of child pornography was particularly heinous, and the sentence imposed was well justified by the facts of this case,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky Robert M. Duncan Jr said in a statement.    

About Fred Petke

Fred Petke is a reporter for The Winchester Sun, the Jessamine Journal and the State Journal. His beats include cops, courts, fire, public records, city and county government and other news. To contact Fred, email fred.petke@bluegrassnewsmedia.com or call 859-759-0051.

email author More by Fred