PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man has pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing thousands of images of child pornography, many of them depicting known victims of sexual abuse.
Digi Fre’nnson, 53, remained in the Clallam County jail Friday without bond pending a pre-sentence report and his July 9 sentencing in Clallam County Superior Court.
A nearly five-year sentence of 57 months was recommended by the Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s office.
Fre’nnson pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of first-degree dealing in depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and one count of first-degree possessing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Two counts of possessing child pornography were dismissed.
According to a Department of Homeland Security investigation, Fre’nnson had more than 12,000 images of child pornography on two computer hard drives in his apartment in the 100 block of West First Street.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said 6,889 image files in Fre’nnson’s possession depicted known victims of child pornography, according to an Aug. 9 probable cause statement.
Fre’nnson was arrested after a Homeland Security agent stationed in Port Angeles went undercover to search for internet users who possessed and were distributing child pornography, according to the statement.
The agent, a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for the Western District of Washington, used a law enforcement version of eMule, a free peer-to-peer computer file-sharing application.
The agent established a single source connection with Fre’nnson, who was discovered sharing four child pornographic images of girls believed to be 5-7 years old, according to the statement.
The Wave Broadband Internet Provider address was assigned to Fre’nnson.
The address led to Fre’nnson’s Port Angeles apartment, where he has lived since 2015.
A search warrant executed by Homeland Security Investigations yielded two hard drives with 12,539 image files of suspected child pornography, and 36,248 image files and 27 video files of suspected child exploitative material, according to the probable cause statement.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited children identified known victims of sexual abuse in 6,781 of the image files.
“Fre’nnson stated he frequently deleted the child pornography files from his computer,” according to the statement.
“He further stated that after deleting them, he would try to stop himself from downloading more, but he could usually only refrain for a month.
“Fre’nnson stated he new he could get in trouble for possessing child pornography, but he couldn’t stop himself.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@ peninsuladailynews.com.