Registered sex offender sentenced to 17 ½ years in prison in child porn case

A registered sex offender from Des Moines was sentenced today to 17 ½ years in prison for possessing hundreds of images of child pornography.

Chief U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik sentenced Kenneth Gouin, 49, to near the 20-year maximum for the offense "for the safety of whatever community Mr. Gouin is released into," he said. Gouin's twin brother, Kevin Gouin, was sentenced in 2006 to 37 months in prison for possession of child pornography for the same incident.

The brothers' sister-in-law alerted Des Moines police that her adolescent son had seen child pornography on the computer the brothers shared, according to testimony and court records. Police found hundreds of printed images and numerous CDs and floppy disks containing child pornography.

Kenneth Gouin admitted he had acquired child pornography via the Internet. He told police that he had saved the images on his computer for years, and that he would regularly spend eight hours a day on the computer, according to court papers.

"He has molested children in the past, and his recent criminal conduct using the most graphic of photographs of child sexual molestation for his own sexual gratification fixes him on the very slippery slope leading to a return to actual molestation when the images no longer suffice," prosecutors said in a sentencing memo.

Kenneth Gouin, who holds Canadian citizenship, fled to Canada following the search and was extradited in October. He was convicted in a bench trial in U.S. District Court in Seattle in March.

He will likely be deported after he serves his prison sentence in the U.S., according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Kenneth Gouin was previously convicted of molesting children between November 1986 and January 1987. Kevin Gouin held no prior convictions, said Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office.

Noelene Clark: 206-464-2321 or nclark@seattletimes.com