By Dana Littlefield

Published on 12/1/05 in San Diego Union Tribune

Copyright maintained by Union Tribune and Dana Littlefield. This post is for archival purposes.

A former San Diego child counselor involved in a huge international child pornography ring was convicted yesterday of child molestation and pornography.

Paul Gordon Whitmore, 47, was convicted of 51 felony counts including committing lewd acts upon a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child and posing a minor for pictures involving sexual conduct.

A San Diego Superior Court jury deliberated about two days before convicting Whitmore. He could be sent to prison for life at a sentencing hearing scheduled for Feb. 3.

Prosecutors contended during the monthlong trial that Whitmore engaged in sexual conduct with several children and sometimes took photographs and made videos of the victims, which he distributed on the Internet.

Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Dort said in a previous interview that investigators found 750,000 total images when they busted the pornography ring in the United States and Europe. More than 100 victims were identified.

The investigation, called Operation Hamlet, began with an anonymous tip to a Swedish child-welfare organization, which led to the arrest of 24 men in the United States and 10 convictions overseas, Dort said.

Prosecutors said Whitmore was one of the most active members of the ring and made child pornography that investigators found on computers in five states and in Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

Another man involved in the ring, Brooke Lockwood Rowland, 44, a former advertising salesman from Poway, pleaded guilty Oct. 7 to committing a lewd act upon a child. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 9.

Since the trial began in late October, the prosecutor and Whitmore's lawyer, Gary Roberts, have been under orders from the judge not to speak about the case outside the courtroom.