‘Appalling’ sex abuser sentenced to 50 years

Gresham’s Mark Allyn Hoffman pleaded guilty to using his children to create child pornography

By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Nov 9, 2009, Updated Nov 10, 2009 (12 Reader comments)

Contributed photo

Katherine Dawn Hoffman and Mark Allyn Hoffman

A federal judge sentenced a Gresham man who used his own sexually abused children to create pornography to 50 years in federal prison Monday, Nov. 9.

Mark Allyn Hoffman, 36, pleaded guilty to two counts of producing child pornography. U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones called the case one of the worst he’s seen in 47 years in practice.

“It is appalling that this father would steal the innocence of his own children,” said acting United States Attorney Kent Robinson. “Because of the determined collaborative efforts of law enforcement, this parent has been brought to justice for his crimes.”

The arrest was part of a federal investigation beginning in December 2006 when an undercover police officer, working with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, received child pornography videos from a Florida man. The videos showed the man’s 5-year-old daughter being sexually molested.

After the Florida man’s arrest, he provided agents with information leading to three other fathers and guardians across the country – in Texas, Pennsylvania, Virginia – who were sexually abusing children in their care.

The Pennsylvania suspect led police to Hoffman in Gresham by identifying images of Hoffman’s victims as Hoffman’s daughters. The man recognized them from live pornographic Web cams and other pictures Hoffman sent him.

Four of the men are serving sentences ranging from 15 years to nearly 55 years in prison. In total, the years behind bars will add up to almost 93. A fifth father who pleaded guilty to multiple charges hanged himself in jail before his sentencing.

Brazen abuse

Hoffman used cameras and video to produce and trade online images of him sexually abusing his two daughters, then ages 2 and 10.

“The brazenness of Hoffman’s crime – committed against his own children while distributing the children’s faces throughout the world – should be answered with a heavy sentence,” Robinson wrote in his request that Hoffman be sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for his crimes.

The older girl was Hoffman’s daughter from a prior marriage. She is autistic and lived with other relatives. The younger girl was Hoffman’s daughter with his current wife, Katherine Dawn Hoffman, with whom Hoffman also had a son with. That boy also was sexually abused.

Police arrested Hoffman on state and federal charges of child rape and pornography in late 2007.

In addition to the federal charges of producing child pornography, Hoffman also has pleaded guilty to state charges of raping his two daughters, sodomy, unlawful sexual penetration and using both girls in a display of sexually explicit conduct.

Court records indicate his youngest daughter was actually 8 months old when Hoffman began abusing her. The abuse only stopped when police arrested him.

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