By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - This week's conviction of Jonathan A. Steele of Middletown on 52 charges is Butler County's biggest child pornography case to date, the Butler County prosecutor said.

People who download child pornography from the Internet almost always have dozens - if not hundreds - of images stored on their computers, Prosecutor Robin Piper said.

"They're addicted to them like a little kid likes sugar," he said. "It's a sick, unhealthy, perverted lust."

Prosecutors from Piper's office are now more inclined to seek indictment on dozens of charges if the images fit legal definitions of material that is against the law, he said.

"It shows we have a zero tolerance for this stuff," Piper said.

A Common Pleas Court jury convicted Steele on Wednesday evening after less than two hours of deliberations.

At a sentencing hearing set for Oct. 2 before Judge Keith Spaeth, Steele, 36, "could be sentenced anywhere from two to 204 years," Assistant Prosecutor Megan Shanahan said.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com