Ex-principal gets 9 years for child porn from student phone

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former Kentucky high school principal was sentenced to nine years in federal prison today for uploading nude pictures of a student from her confiscated cellphone and sending them to a Russia-based pornography-trading website.

"What I've done is morally reprehensible," Stephen Kyle Goodlett said, apologizing to the victim and the judge before his sentencing in Louisville. "Your honor, I deserve to go to prison."

Judge David J. Hale abided by the prosecutors' recommendation, saying the sentence reflects both the seriousness of Goodlett's crime and his cooperation with authorities. Upon release, Goodlett must serve 10 years of supervised release and register as a sex offender.

"Parents must be able to place their trust in educators to provide a safe learning environment for our kids," U.States Attorney Russell Coleman said in a statement after the hearing. "Mr. Goodlett not only violated this trust but exploited students for his own foul gratification. His significant punishment is well-earned."

Goodlett, who pleaded guilty to transporting and possessing child pornography in the federal case, still faces more than 60 child porn counts involving many more victims in state court.

As a teacher at Elizabethtown High School south of Louisville and then principal of LaRue County High School for three years until he was fired in 2016, Goodlett was respected in his church and community. But prosecutors said he was covertly searching the confiscated student cellphones of teenage girls for nude photos, and saving them to thumb drives to be viewed, uploaded and traded on the internet.