A former Tampa police sergeant, Paul Leo Mumford, aged 63, has been found guilty on Thursday of 100 charges related to the possession of child pornography.
The conviction came after a 3½-hour deliberation, as reported by TampaBay.com.
His defense attorney, Chip Purcell, expressed disappointment, stating, “It’s disappointing, but it’s one step in the process. We’ll start to work on the appeal.”
Mumford, who retired in 2015 after 29 years with the Tampa Police Department, spent the last 18 months of his career as a sergeant in the sex crimes unit.
Following his retirement, Mumford continued to serve as a reserve officer for six years until he was relieved of duty in February 2022, according to Fox 13.
The Tampa Bay Police Department was notified in December 2021 about illegal images discovered on an electronic device owned by Mumford.
James Bowie, a former Tampa police officer, found the illegal images on Mumford’s hard drive after Mumford requested his help in examining it due to its malfunction.
During the examination, Bowie uncovered several images of child pornography.
After obtaining a warrant, police searched Mumford’s home and found sexual stories involving children on his computer, with Mumford’s name listed as the author.
Mumford claimed to police that he was unaware of the images on the hard drive and argued in court that he did not write all the stories, asserting that the ones he did write were therapeutic expressions stemming from his experiences of “extreme sexual abuse” by a “pedophile ring throughout the state of Florida” during his childhood.
Sentencing for Mumford will be determined by Hillsborough Circuit Judge Samantha Ward in March. Each charge carries a potential maximum sentence of 15 years.
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[Feature Photo via Tampa Bay Police]
