Prosecutors in DA Charme Allen’s Child Abuse Unit obtained a conviction against a clerk who used a computer in the Judicial Commissioner’s office to email child pornography.  Joshua Ryan Fettig, 22, pled guilty to Sexual Exploitation of a Minor and received a sentence of eight years to serve at one hundred percent.

In a plea hearing before Judge Scott Green, Assistant District Attorney Joanie Stewart explained to the Court that around December 7, 2013, Knoxville Police Department Investigator John Williams with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force received a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone attempted to send five emails containing known images of child pornography through a Knox County internet protocol (IP) address.  Inv. Williams was able to determine that the IP address was assigned to the Knox County government at 400 W. Main Street.  Inv. Williams worked with the county IT department to determine that the computer in question was located in the Judicial Commissioner’s office.  Surveillance video and proximity card access records showed Fettig accessing the Judicial Commissioner’s office at the time the emails containing child pornography were sent.  Fettig was employed at the time as a clerk and assisted with the issuance of criminal warrants.  Investigators searched other computers belonging to Fettig and discovered over three hundred images of child pornography.

“The most vulnerable victims we encounter are children,” said DA Allen.  “In addition to being victimized during the production of child pornography, each time an image of child pornography is viewed or downloaded, that child is further victimized.”

The images were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children who were able to match some of the photographs to twenty different series of known child rape and exploitation cases. During the plea hearing today, prosecutors submitted a victim impact statement from one of the known victims who explained how this crime continues to affect her life.