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Student charged with possession of `kiddie porn'

A 28-year-old Taiwanese exchange student in the US has been sentenced to prison for distributing child pornography.

Chu Wei-ting, a student at the Florida Institute of Technology, was charged with possession and distribution of child pornography last May.

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Florida law enforcement officers and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents linked Chu's e-mail address to numerous child porn photos, and investigators found more than 600 child pornography images on his computer.

"Chief US District Judge Patricia C. Fawsett today [Dec. 18] sentenced [Chu Wei-ting], 28, of Taiwan to 12 years' imprisonment for his distribution of child pornography. The sentence also calls for Chu to serve a two-year period of supervised release and a [US]$100 special assessment," a press release from a US District Attorney's office in Florida said.

"According to the stipulated facts contained in his plea agreement, Chu is a citizen of Taiwan who entered the United States in 2005 to attend school. Chu made arrangements to live with a family in Brevard County, Florida. From that residence, Chu distributed and collected child pornography," the statement said.

"Chu's distribution of child pornography was discovered based on a referral to the [US] Cyber Crimes Center from Germany," the district attorney's office said. "Subsequent investigation found that Chu distributed child pornography on multiple occasions in August 2005 from his residence in Brevard County, Florida."

The statement said that on May 19 last year, a US federal search warrant was executed at the residence at which Chu was staying.

According to the US officials, Chu consented to an interview during the execution of the search warrant. Chu then admitted that he had used his computer to collect child pornography from the Internet, which he then distributed to various groups and to a friend in Taiwan.

"Chu admitted to directing his efforts at the collection of child pornography, and he described how he configured his computer to search the Internet on a regular basis to locate such images," the press release said.

jail and deportation

Upon successful completion of his sentence, Chu will be deported to Taiwan.

Ke Bao-hsuan (葛保萱), a division head at Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Houston, Texas, said that the only thing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could do was to provide assistance, such as visiting Chu in prison.

Li Kuang-hua (李光華), head of TECO Houston's cultural division, said that if Taiwanese students in the US experience unexpected trouble, the office could help family members travel to the US to visit.
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