Men receive lengthy prison terms for possessing child pornography.

Two Martin County men have been handed lengthy prison sentences for possessing child pornography. On Tuesday, Circuit Judge William Roby sentenced 71-year-old Thomas Coniglio of Stuart to 111 years in prison on each of the 100 felony counts he faced for possessing images of children engaged in sexual activity. Coniglio was convicted on April 26, 2021, after a jury trial.

Joseph Henderson, age 35, of Palm City, was also sentenced on Tuesday to 111 years in prison on each of the 110 felony counts he faced for possessing child pornography. He was convicted on March 20, 2021. Henderson worked for a security company that provided services to Heritage Oaks. Investigators found that the child pornography video was uploaded on a day when Henderson was working.

Judge Roby described Coniglio as a danger to society and noted that the images of children engaged in sexual activity were heinous and the most atrocious he had ever seen. “I’ve seen murder victims that I wouldn’t want to see either, but I’d rather see the murder victims than the child porn,” Judge Roby said in a TCPalm report. The judge added that the images were so disturbing that they kept him awake at night.

The judge went on to say that child pornography cases and the images associated with them are truly heinous crimes that create multiple child victims throughout the country on multiple occasions. Coniglio was present at the podium while the judge made the statements, chained at his hands and feet.

In addition to the child pornography charges, Henderson also faces a county charge of sexual battery of a child. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook that Henderson was arrested on the child pornography charges. Henderson is accused of sexually battering an 11-year-old girl in 2008, according to arrest records. A jury trial is scheduled for August 14.

The Martin County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook that detectives with their Criminal Investigations Special Victim’s Unit worked tirelessly to retrieve the disturbing images off of the suspect’s computer devices. They described the work as painstaking, but critical to the successful prosecution and sentencing of criminals. The images retrieved from the computers depicted infants to 12-year-old children victimized in sexual activity.

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