A former San Diego police officer convicted of making and possessing child pornography was placed on five years' probation yesterday and ordered to stop operating an Internet-safety Web site.

Brett Kenneth Hensley pleaded guilty in June to one felony count of using a minor in the making of child pornography and three misdemeanor counts of possessing child pornography.

Hensley, a 12-year veteran who resigned in June 2004, surrendered in court Jan. 18. A search warrant had been executed nearly a year earlier at his Sabre Springs home by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and San Diego police. Soon after he was taken into custody, he posted bond and was released.

During a San Diego Superior Court hearing yesterday, Judge Charles Rogers told Hensley he could be sent to jail for a year if he violates the terms of probation. Rogers ordered him to complete 30 days of public service. Hensley also will have to register as a sex offender for life.

Deputy District Attorney Geoff Allard argued unsuccessfully that Hensley should do some jail time – up to 240 days – for his crimes. A forensic review of Hensley's home and work computers revealed numerous images of child pornography and e-mail messages indicating he was communicating with female minors, according to court documents.

The agents also discovered that Hensley solicited phone sex with a teenage girl who lives out of state and requested that she e-mail him sexually explicit photos of herself. The girl believed she was communicating with a 16-year-old boy, the prosecutor said.

"Words really don't do justice to the defendant's crime. It's all really about the pictures," Allard told the judge.

Defense attorney Gerald Blank said in court that Hensley entered therapy soon after the search warrant was served and moved out of the house he shared with his wife and children.

"This is a gentleman who immediately responded to the problem," Blank said, adding that his client committed the crimes "in the darkest and most difficult days of his life."

Blank said the problem started when Hensley began downloading adult porn on the Internet at a time when he was having trouble in his marriage. Hensley never distributed child porn or tried to meet any minors in person, the attorney said.

Judge Rogers called the downloaded images "shocking," "disgusting" and "degrading," but said he believed the defendant was remorseful. The judge noted a report by an evaluator who said she didn't believe Hensley was a *********.

However, the judge ordered the defendant to stop operating a Web site – www.safersurfers.org – through which he offered tips to parents on ways to protect their children from Internet predators. Rogers gave Hensley 90 days to sell or transfer ownership of the site. FULL STORY

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Do you think probation and losing the Safesurf.org site is a just sentence for the crime? Is blaming a bad marriage a good defense for making, possessing CP?