PORTLAND (AP) – A former high school English teacher who was described as “a true child predator” has been handed an 18-month prison term for possessing child pornography on his computer.

Melvin Logan, 67, of Portland was sentenced Thursday in Cumberland County Superior Court to seven years with all but 18 months suspended, followed by six years of probation.

Logan, formerly of Windham, was found guilty by a jury earlier this month of 19 counts of possessing sexually explicit material.

“We have to send a message,” said Justice Thomas Warren, noting that the photos that Logan had on the computer “represent some child being exploited in one of the most reprehensible ways imaginable.”

The Legislature recently made it a felony to possess pornographic images of children clearly under the age of 12. At the time of Logan’s arrest in 2004, that crime was classified as a misdemeanor, carrying a maximum sentence of a year in prison.

“This would have been a different sentence had (the crime) been committed today,” Warren said at the end of the three-and-a-half-hour hearing.

Logan was arrested after a technician working on a computer that he had left at a Windham repair shop found images of naked children engaged in sex acts with adults.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Norbert displayed several of those images on a video screen at the sentencing hearing. She also discussed a 500-page manuscript found by police in Logan’s apartment that she said documented his life as a pedophile, beginning in the 1960s in Rochester, N.Y.

Logan wrote in detail about having sex with students, Norbert said, adding that she contacted some of those former students named in the manuscript.

Logan and his attorney, Joel Vincent, said the manuscript was part fact, part fiction, and should not be considered in the sentencing.

Norbert, who cited Logan’s prior convictions in New York for child endangerment, grand larceny and disorderly conduct, recommended that Logan spend six years in prison.

“He is a true child predator,” the prosecutor said. “This began in his early 20s, and here he is today at 67, continuing to prey on children.”

Logan, who did not testify at trial, acknowledged that he had done “horrendous things,” but said he underwent a change after moving to Maine in 1994, becoming a Mormon and leaving a sinful lifestyle behind.

“I am no danger to anyone, your honor. I’m asking for a break,” he said.

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com

AP-ES-09-21-07 0946EDT

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