County man sentenced to over 2 years in jail for child porn

An Albemarle County man who downloaded child pornography will be incarcerated for two more years.

Circuit Judge Cheryl Higgins sentenced Kenneth James Rothwell this morning to two-and-a-half years in prison, three years of supervised release and 40 years of good behavior. Rothwell also will register as a sex offender, undergo sex offender treatment and won’t be allowed to own a computer or have unsupervised contact with a minor.

In court this morning, Rothwell said he moved to the Charlottesville area from St. Louis as part of an agreement after he molested some children to whom he was related. He testified he downloaded Limewire, a file-sharing program, to “see what was on there.” Rothwell said in court he downloaded music files and eventually child pornography.

Rothwell has already served six months in jail.

For more on this story, read Thursday’s edition of The Daily Progress.