Pedophile sentenced to 3 months by Ketanji Brown Jackson continued ‘to seek out sexually arousing’ images of teen boys

In 2013, then 19-year-old Wesley Hawkins was sentenced to three months for child pornography, a sentence that has repeatedly been blasted by Senate Republicans during the course of Jackson’s confirmation hearing for being too low given the content of the images and videos he possessed, according to the Washington Post.

In 2012, Hawkins came to the attention of law enforcement after he posted five videos of prepubescent boys engaged in sexual acts to YouTube. An undercover detected soon after emailed the then 18-year-old, suggested that the two had "similar interests."

Hawkins then emailed the agent two videos, and said that he was interested in boys ages 11 to 17.

Authorities subsequently executed a search warrant in June of that year, discovering 17 videos and 16 images of young boys on Hawkins’s laptop and phone.

According to the Daily Mail, Hawkins had also uploaded 36 images and videos of child pornography to his iCloud account.

"There were videos of 11 and 12-year-olds committing sexual acts, a video of an 11-year-old being raped by an adult male, a video of an eight-year-old committing a sexual act, to name a few," the Daily Mail wrote.

Federal guidelines called for an eight to 10-year sentence for the crime. Citing Hawkins age and lack of criminal record, prosecutors recommended a two-year sentence. A US probation officer recommended just a year and a half.

Hawkins’ defense though asked for far lower than any of those amounts: just one day in jail, home detention, and five years of supervised release, according to the Washington Post.

"The attorney said that Hawkins was not dangerous, had a sexual identity issue complicated by his mother’s strict religious beliefs and that his offense was prompted by a teenage sexual drive, not an intrinsic sexual attraction to significantly younger children," the paper wrote.

Then federal-district court judge for DC Jackson said that Hawkins had committed "a very serious and, in many ways, heinous crime, one that capitalizes on the victimization of the most vulnerable members of our society … I cannot even express adequately how horrifying it is for me to know that somewhere out there there are children who are being trapped and molested and raped for the viewing pleasure of people like yourself."

Jackson though seemed persuaded by some of the defense’s arguments as well as her own review, noting that Hawkins had not produced the videos or photos, rather only exchanged ones found online.

Addressing Hawkins, she said: "You were only involved in this for a few months" and that "other than your engagement with the undercover officer, there isn’t an indication that you were in any online communities to advance your collecting behavior."

Jackson also placed weight on the relative age of those Hawkins was viewing in comparison to the defendant, saying "Most child pornography offenders are middle-aged adults who are deviants drawn to pictures of vulnerable children … This case is different because the children in the photos and videos you collected were not much younger than you. This seems to be a situation in which you were fascinated by sexual images involving what were essentially your peers."

According to the Daily Mail, Jonathan Jeffress, Hawkins’ lawyer, submitted a psychologist’s evaluation to the court determining that Hawkins did not "demonstrate sexual deviation," but rather he was driven to the child porn as "a way for him to explore his curiosity about homosexual activity and connect with his emotional peers."

In a handwritten letter sent to Jackson just three days before sentencing, Hawkins’ expressed his regret, and hoped Jackson would give him a "second chance."

"I cannot say how much I regret what I have done. I have disappointed everyone in my family and everyone who has ever cared about me. I hope that I can make up for my mistakes and that this will not end my life before it starts," the letter stated.

Hawkins’ case, and short sentencing, have been slammed by Republican Senators, including Sen. Josh Hawley, who called the sentence a "slap on the wrist."

Sen. Tom Cotton cited a 2019 court order from Jackson requiring that Hawkins enter a halfway house for the last six months of his six-year term of supervision.

"The order reiterated earlier terms of his supervision that his computer and property were subject to search at any time, and added the condition of computer monitoring software," the Washington Post wrote, noting that the underlying request for the order has been sealed.

In reference to the order, Cotton asked Jackson in the Senate hearing, "What did Wesley Hawkins do in 2019, judge?"

"I don’t remember," Jackson replied.

"You know what I think? I think he got caught with child pornography again, and he wouldn’t have if he had been in prison the eight to 10 years the guidelines called for," Cotton said.

"A person familiar with the Hawkins case read to The Post the probation office request that led to Jackson’s order," according to the , who noted that the person spoke on terms of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.