LOGAN — A 68-year-old Logan man has been sentenced for possessing child pornography. Vern Evan Buist was ordered to serve seven months in jail and three years of probation.
According to court records, Buist was sentenced Sept. 17 in Logan’s 1st District Court. He previously accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
According to prosecutors, the Logan City Police Department received a cyber-tip from Google on July 2, 2024. The tip advised that a Google user had uploaded child sexual abuse material to their account.
Google submitted 10 files with the tip. Police found two of the files included images of male children, 12-14 years old, whose clothing had been edited off, so the children appeared nude. Adult male genitals had been edited onto the children.
Two weeks later, officers obtained a warrant for Google and received 33,400 images associated with the account. 20,274 were nude images, according to investigators.
Police reported that most of the images were of nude males. Many of the images were photoshopped, by putting other people’s faces over the original face. The images had males being tied up and having ropes around their necks.
The images included males engaged in various sexual activities. Many of the victims looked young and had smaller bodies. There were also hundreds of photos of young male children, some clothed, and others shirtless and posing. Some of the photos had edited nooses around the children’s neck. The children ranged from 6-17 years old, court documents detailed.
On Oct. 23, 2024, police served a search warrant on Buist’s residence. They found a noose tied up in a closet along with multiple electronic devices inside the home.
While being questioned at the police department, Buist reportedly confirmed his Google account and admitted to editing many of the photos using software found on his computer, including at least one of the edited photos of children with adult genitals. Referring to some of the pictures, he told police that it wasn’t illegal or hurting anyone by having them.
Judge Brian Cannell sentenced Buist to 210 days in jail, followed by 36 months of probation. He also ordered the Logan man to complete mental health and sex offender treatment.