Curtis Wayne Lee booking photo from the Cache County Jail.
LOGAN — A 66-year-old Wellsville man, previously convicted of sexually abusing two girls, has admitted to downloading child pornography over the internet. Curtis Wayne Lee waived his right to a fair trial and accepted a plea deal that could send him to prison.
According to court records, Lee appeared for a final pretrial conference Monday, March 11, in Logan’s 1st District Court. He pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
According to prosecutors, a member of the Logan Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force began investigating Lee in August 2023 after detecting a computer downloading child pornography. The agent was using investigative software to monitor file sharing networks, known as BitTorrents.
The officer reportedly found over a dozen photos being shared by a computer in Wellsville. The images were of a 10 to 12-year-old girl in various pornographic poses.
Officers later served a warrant to the home and took Lee into custody. They also seized a laptop, multiple hard drives, and other digital storage devices.
Investigators performed a digital forensic analysis on the laptop and hard drive, finding more sexual images children, including pictures of a girl being sexually abused by an adult male. The laptop also had software installed on it designed to permanently erase files and logs.
During questioning, Lee reportedly told police he was sexually interested in children and viewed child pornography as an outlet for his desires. He also implied that looking at explicit material helped keep him from sexually abusing children.
Court records show, Lee was arrested in 1997 for molesting two young girls. The crimes occurred repeatedly over a period of time. He was later convicted of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony, and sentenced to serve one year in jail.
During Monday’s hearing, prosecutors dismissed 15 remaining charges against Lee in exchange for his guilty plea. A three-day jury trial, scheduled to begin March 27, was also cancelled.
Lee remains in the Cache County Jail, being held without bail. He is scheduled to be sentenced on the new charges April 29, and could face up to 15 years in prison.