Man to serve 10 years in federal prison for child porn found on phone he left on plane

A man who had left child porn materials behind him several times which others then found has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

Back in 2019, Rodger Moore of Alexandria, Kentucky, was on a flight from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and left his cell phone behind him on the plane after he deplaned. Flight personnel recovered the cell phone and initially turned it in to the airport lost-and-found. However, when airline employees opened the phone in an attempt to identify the owner, they accidentally discovered child porn on it and immediately contacted the police.

Police uncovered a total of 171 different child porn videos and images on the device.

Last September, Moore, 54, pled guilty to transporting child pornography, and on Friday, Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves sentenced him to 10 years in federal prison. Per his plea agreement, Moore must serve at least 85% of that time. After finishing his sentence, Moore will then be placed on probation and, according to the U.S. attorney's office of the Eastern District of Kentucky, he will remain "under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for life."

However, the plane incident was not the only occasion on which Moore left a trail of child porn that others then found.

In late 2019, Moore took his car into a mechanic, and while performing repairs or maintenance on the vehicle, a mechanic employee found child porn in the trunk.

This discovery then helped shed light on a previously unsolved case of child porn found at a nearby school. Two months before Moore brought the car into the shop, someone driving a black Volvo threw a series of materials out the window in the parking lot of Johnson Elementary School in Fort Thomas, Kentucky. Among the debris was child pornography. Police were never able to identify the driver of the Volvo until the mechanic came forward to report the child porn found in Moore's trunk. Investigators were then able to link the two events back to Moore.

Between the three incidents and the data collected from other computers and devices seized from Moore's residence, police have found over 500 separate child porn images and videos in Moore's possession.

Moore is currently being housed in the Bourbon County Regional Jail. It is unknown where he will serve the rest of his sentence.