Sumter man, 46, sentenced to 151 months in federal prison for distributing child porn

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A 46-year-old Sumter man will be spending more than a decade behind bars after he was found guilty of distributing child pornography.

Marlin Russell Derk was sentenced to 151 months, about 12.5 years, in federal prison for his actions by United States District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis.

There is no parole in the federal system, states a release from the District of South Carolina United States Attorney’s Office.

Department of Homeland Security Investigation special agents reportedly caught Derk posting child pornography to a chatroom website on June 11, 2015, that was being used to trade child pornography.

Subsequent searches of Derk’s residence and computers yielded 111 videos and 489 images of child pornography, states the release.

Following his release from federal prison, Derk will be under court-ordered supervision for the rest of his life, and he will be required to register as a sex offender, attend sex offender treatment, submit to computer monitoring, refrain from any unsupervised contact with minors as well as submit to random polygraph examinations.

This case was investigated by Department of Homeland Security Investigations and prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.