Appellate court affirms conviction and 1,000-year sentence of Mallory

(Lagrange, GA) — On May 7, 2020, the Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and 1,000-year sentence of Peter Mallory.

On December 18, 2012, after a trial that lasted more than three weeks, a Troup County jury found Mallory guilty of sixty counts of sexual exploitation of children, three counts of invasion of privacy, and one count of tampering with evidence.

The charges were the result of a LaGrange Police Department investigation, which detectives initiated in February of 2011 after receiving an alert of more than 600 suspected child pornography files linked to a computer in LaGrange.

The investigation led to the local television station that Mallory operated, where investigators seized several hard drives containing more than 26,000 files of child pornography.

The evidence demonstrated that Mallory knowingly and intentionally sought out, gathered, downloaded, and saved these images and videos of children being raped, tortured, and sexually exploited.

Peter Mallory (Photo: LPD)

LPD investigators arrested Mallory on April 27, 2011.

Regarding the invasion of privacy counts, the evidence at trial showed that Mallory installed and operated a hidden camera at his desk and recorded young female victims as they sat in his office.

Before pronouncing Mallory’s sentence, Coweta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Dennis Blackmon called Mallory “probably the most prolific collector of child pornography in the entire world.”

In its unreported decision affirming the judgment of the trial court, the Court of Appeals held that their “review of the record [did] not show that the [1,000 year] sentence was disproportionate for the crimes Mallory committed.”

“The District Attorney’s Office is thankful that the Court of Appeals upheld Mallory’s conviction and sentence, and in doing so affirmed that justice was done in this case,” said Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herb Cranford in a Tuesday press release.

“LaGrange Police Department detectives and Assistant District Attorneys Kevin McMurry and Steve Lee should be commended for their tireless work on behalf of every child victimized in the pictures and recordings in this case. Under former District Attorney Pete Skandalakis possessing child pornography was prosecuted as aggressively as child molestation, and that remains the policy of this Office under District Attorney Cranford, because for every image and recording of child pornography someone’s child was victimized and traumatized.” added Cranford.