American gets 120 years prison for taking pornographic photos of children

120 years prison
Kenneth Stokes has been sentenced to 120 years prison for his crimes

Kenneth Stokes, a convicted child molester has been sentenced to 120 years prison.

Stokes had been a resident in Cebu, and had taken thousands of images of child pornography – many he sold over the internet for as  much as $1,250.

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What Stokes didn’t know is that an undercover agent was acting as a buyer and talked with Stokes over a six month period. Stokes even told the agent that if he visited the Philippines, he could “have any pre-teen he wanted.”

Stokes was so out of control he even tried to convince the undercover agent to rape and impregnate his Filipina wife so that Stokes could later use the child for sexual exploitation.

Stokes, aged 71, pleaded guilty earlier this year to five counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and was sentenced to 120 years in federal prison without the chance of parole.

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Stokes, who has a prior child rape conviction of a seven-year-old in the state of Washington, said he married a Filipina to “get at her daughter”. He was identified by federal agents when they found an advertisement on Craigslist.

The federal agent and Stokes communicated about his wife, the daughter and how he later made her “disappear”. On December 3, 2012, the agent met Stokes in the Philippines who then told the agent that he would take him to two places where he could sexually abuse children.

Stokes bragged about the 1,000s of images he had in his possession and tried to convince the agent to impregnate his wife so he could later “use” the child. He told the agent that his wife would not consent to this, and encouraged him to rape her.

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After Stokes showed his laptop to the agent, he left his house and returned with local law enforcement. Out of all the photos found, five local children were identified and when questioned, admitted to being paid for the sexually explicit photographs.

Court documents in the Philippines show that Stokes had a confrontation with local authorities previously. Records show the American had been arrested for taking photographs of a young girl, but no further action was taken against him.

Stokes was arrested and deported back to the United States, where he was placed into federal custody. He has been in Green County Jail, a federal prison, since February 2013.

Authorities say that the sentence sends and unmistakable message about the consequences of committing such a horrendous crime.