Daily Journal
TUPELO – A Lee County man will spend the next three years in a state prison after pleading guilty to child exploitation.
Austin Long, 64, appeared Monday before Lee County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Gardner and entered an open plea to one count of child exploitation. Judge Gardner sentenced Long to 20 years in prison with 17 of those years suspended, leaving three years to serve, followed by five years of post-release supervision. Long was also ordered to pay $1,000 to the Mississippi Children’s Trust Fund, $100 to the Mississippi Crime Victim Compensation Fund and a $1,000 fine. Additionally, Long must register as a sex offender.
Long was arrested last December at his home by investigators with the Attorney General’s Cyber Crime Unit with assistance of the Tupelo Police Department. It was discovered through an investigation that Long was using the internet to communicate via chat rooms and emails with other child predators to receive sexually explicit images and videos of children under 12.
Attorney General Jim Hood said the case originally started as a cyber tip as part of an investigation into a separate case by the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children task force.