By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

A 26-year-old Pelham man, a former middle school assistant coach and special education aide, was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison on June 24 for possessing more than 1,800 child pornography images.

U.S. District Court Judge Inge P. Johnson sentenced Joshua David Statum after Statum pleaded guilty to the charges in March.

According to court documents, Statum was a former assistant wrestling and football coach at Homewood Middle School, and was also a special education aide in Homewood.

While working at Homewood Middle School in 2011 and 2012, Statum was viewing and sharing child pornography over the Internet, according to court documents.

“This defendant did not just look at a few images once in his life, but used file sharing computer technology to distribute images of prepubescent children being sodomized and raped and also to possess thousands of images of children be similarly exploited,” read the government’s sentencing memorandum.

Statum was found to be in possession of 1,875 images of child pornography, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance.

One video found in Statum’s possession depicted a girl younger than 12 being raped and another depicted a 5-year-old girl performing sexual acts, according to court documents.

The Alabama Bureau of Investigation investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel J. Fortune prosecuted the case.