A former Hardin and Franklin county middle school teacher has been sentenced in federal court to 15 years in prison on child porn charges.
Robert Alan Thompson, 34, of Hodgenville, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David J. Hale last week after being convicted for online enticement of a minor and production of child pornography, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett.
Thompson was a math teacher at West Hardin Middle School at the time of his arrest. He joined Hardin County Schools in 2018 as a teacher J.T. Alton Middle School after previously teaching at Bondurant Middle School in Franklin County, where he committed the child porn offenses.
During his time teaching in Franklin County, Thompson was named the county’s middle school teacher of the year for the 2017-2018 school year.
Thompson’s arrest came after investigators uncovered a 2018 chat between Thompson and Matthew Alexander Lyons, 33, of Elizabethtown (who has also been charged in the case), where Lyons sent two photos to Thompson of minors engaging in sex acts, officials said. The children in the photos were between 12- and 14-years-old. Lyons is also accused of inducing a 16-year-old boy to engage in sexual performances via electronic communication in February 2020.
While being interviewed by federal authorities in April 2020, Thompson indicated that he would receive images and videos of child pornography via online links and visit teen chat rooms pretending to be a teenage boy, Bennett said. Thompson further stated that about a month prior to his arrest he received two pictures of underage boys engaging in sexually explicit conduct from a friend.
A detective with the Kentucky Office of Attorney General’s Department of Criminal Investigations conducted a “full file system extraction” of Thompson’s iPhone and found he was in possession of more than 1,500 sexually explicit photos and videos involving minors.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
