A Morgan Hill man will serve nearly five years in prison after admitting he possessed one of the largest collections of child pornography ever found in Silicon Valley, according to authorities.
Paul Lawrence Vella, 60, entered a guilty plea Aug. 4, 2014 in federal court in the Northern District of California, according to U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag.
Vella, an engineer, admitted to investigators that he used his computer to download thousands of images of child pornography through a P2P network, and saved those images on hard drives, discs and other digital devices, according to Haag.
Authorities from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified 915 known child victims from his collections of child pornography, Haag added.
Vella admitted to the court that he knowingly possessed more than 600 images of child pornography, according to authorities. Law enforcement also found more than 86,000 images and more than 2,100 videos depicting child pornography in Vella’s possession.
Some of the images and videos showed prepubescent minors and images portraying sadistic or masochistic conduct, authorities said. Some depicted the forcible rape of, and other violence against young children.
Court documents revealed that Vella possessed one of the largest collections of child pornography ever found in Silicon Valley.
Vella’s arrest and conviction are the result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, Haag added.
After serving a sentence of 59 months in prison, Vella will be on supervised probation for seven years, according to Haag’s statement. He will also be required to register as a sex offender, participate in a sex offender treatment program and pay $29,500 in restitution.
Vella has been in custody since he pleaded guilty Aug. 4.
