The Associated Press

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WEATHERFORD, Texas – A man was sentenced to more than 4,000 years in prison Wednesday for sexually assaulting three teenage girls over two years.

Jurors sentenced James Kevin Pope to 40 life prison terms – one for each sex assault conviction – and 20 years for each of the three convictions on sexual performance of a child.

At the request of prosecutors, state District Judge Graham Quisenberry ordered Mr. Pope to serve the sentences consecutively, adding up to 4,060 years. He will be eligible for parole in the year 3209, according to the Parker County district attorney's office.

Mr. Pope, 43, of Springtown, abused the girls for nearly two years, and it came to authorities' attention this year after he made several inappropriate comments to a friend who notified Child Protective Service.

The teens testified about the abuse, and sexually explicit photographs were shown as evidence

By LISA BACKUS
Staff writer

NEW BRITAIN — It started with a persistent detective who was willing to follow up on allegations that a 14-year boy was being molested.

It ended Friday, more than two years later, with two men serving decades-long prison sentences for videotaping their molestation of nearly a dozen area children.

“I can’t imagine how many children we protected because these two are in prison,” said Lt. James Wardwell who headed up the largest investigation into child pornography that his department has ever conducted.

Harold Spurling, 41, argued Friday during his sentencing that his two years of incarceration while the case was pending were “miserable” and likely enough punishment for giving in to his temptation to victimize his “young friends.”

Spurling and his roommate Jeffrey Brisson, 30, became the subjects of one of the largest child pornography investigations in state history after police uncovered dozens of videos of the pair having sex with close to a dozen children over the span of several years.

Brisson pleaded guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to 45 years in prison followed by 15 years of probation as a sex offender. Spurling initially turned down a plea deal for a 30-year sentence in favor of a trial but changed his mind in December.

He read a 20-minute statement Friday to New Britain Superior Court Judge Hillary Strackbein while repeatedly referring to the boys he molested as his “young friends.”

“I am today’s fashionable boogie man,” Spurling told the court, and claimed the public and the media were engaging in hysteria over child sexuality.

“Yes, I gave into temptation, but it involved no force or violence,” Spurling said. “I really am a fundamentally good person, I just made some bad mistakes.”

Strackbein pointed out that Spurling stole something from the children that can’t be replaced before she sentenced him to the full 40 years followed by 20 years on probation as a sex offender.

“You made the choice to physically, mentally and sexually assault them,” she said. “Ironically, the things that you said you lost, comfort, peace and security are all things you took from them.”

Spurling and Brisson were arrested in January 2008 after Detective Michael Steele was able to obtain a warrant for the men’s arrest for their years-long molestation of a teenage boy. The pair was found in their apartment with a 3-month-old girl who had been sexually assaulted by Brisson. Police also found a computer encrypting a video of Brisson molesting the child.

The city’s digital forensics unit, under the direction of Wardwell, a nationally recognized computer crimes expert, recovered dozens of videos on the pair’s computers of nine other children being molested by the men over the course of several years, according to warrants issued for their arrests.

“This case started with old-fashioned police work,” Wardwell said. “There was nothing high-tech about it. Michael Steele, one of our youth bureau detectives followed up appropriately.”

The resulting investigation took hundreds of man hours and ultimately brought the two men to justice, Wardwell said. “I am proud of the hard work of the Youth Bureau, the Digital Forensics Unit and the Detective Bureau. They worked together, long, long, hours. They did a lot of hard work on a case that was heartbreaking and they did their jobs well.”

Brisson admitted during his sentencing in May he was a pedophile with a compulsion that can’t be stopped. He also likened society’s fear of pedophiles to long ago fears of African Americans or gays and lesbians and said all adults have thoughts of having sex with children.

Spurling pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of risk of injury to a minor in December. He originally faced more than 60 sexual assault related charges.

His plea deal was for a 40-year prison sentence with the right to argue for 25 years during his sentencing. Spurling told the court he lost everything including his freedom and that he had suffered during his incarceration.

He also said that his guilty plea was his final act of love for his “young friends” rather than subject the children to testifying at a trial