COLUMBIA, S.C. (WJBF) – A South Carolina man has pleaded guilty to his fourth offense of possessing child pornography.
Sixty-one-year-old David Elliott Paulsen was released federal prison in March 2023 and transferred to a residential reentry facility in Columbia. In July, employees of the facility found a contraband cell phone in his room containing more than 1,200 images of child sexual abuse material and at least one video.
Paulsen admitted to downloading the images from the Dark Web and keeping them in password-protected apps.
This is not Paulsen’s first conviction for this type of crime. He has 3 prior federal convictions from 1993, 2004, and 2014 for possession of child pornography. He’s facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to 20 years in federal prison.