FARMINGTON — A  North Salt Lake man who had downloaded and saved more than 100,000 images of graphic child pornography over a decade has been sentenced to serve 300 days with work release at the Davis County Jail. 

Aaron Wayne Hammond, 36, appeared in 2nd District Court with his attorney Tara Isaacson on Thursday before Judge Robert Dale.

Dale sentenced Hammond to serve the jail time, along with three years probation. He also said Hammond could use the computer at his work for work-related projects. 

Hammond had pleaded guilty in  February to three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second-degree felonies. 

Dale suspended three sentences of one to 15 years at the Utah State Prison in lieu of the jail and probation sentence. 

Hammond was arrested in October of 2013  by officers with the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. 

Assistant Attorney General Jessica Smith said Hammond had “a substantial collection” of images and videos of child pornography that he had gathered in 10 to 15 years. Hammond told officers he looked at the images every day.

Hammond also told officers he transferred images to his phone so he could look at images in bathrooms “and gratify himself without his wife or anyone else finding out.” 

Hammond gave officers his phone along with his pass code. Officers immediately saw an image of child pornography, Smith said. 

Hammond also downloaded and saved images and videos on CDs, Smith said. Those CDs contained thousands of images and 171 videos.

“These are real children,” Smith said. 

Smith read a victim impact statement from a parent of one child who was identified in some of the videos, depicting a child who had been raped. 

The parent said the girl has had to change schools. People are watching their home. The girl has experienced night terrors because of what was done to her and also because she knows the videos are being viewed, Smith read. 

“Her rights as a human being have been violated,” Smith read. “Anyone viewing these pictures should be held responsible.”

Isaacson said Hammond has taken full responsibility for what he has done since “it came to light.” 

Isaacson said Hammond holds down a good job, but if he was sentenced to a lengthy incarceration without work release he would have a difficult time finding another job because of his felony record. 

Isaacson said she spoke with jail staff personally to make sure Hammond would be approved for its work-release program because normally the jail does not approve the work-release program for sex offenders serving a sentence in the jail.

Contact reporter Loretta Park at 801-625-4252 or lpark@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @LorettaParkSE. Like her on Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/SELorettaPark.