TROUP COUNTY, Ga. — Peter Mallory, who was sentenced to 1,000 years in prison in 2013 on child porn charges, has been released on parole after serving 7 years of his sentence.
Channel 2 Action News covered the trial and sentencing when he was convicted of having more thousands of files of child pornography.
The now-72-year-old was well-known and respected in Lagrange, where he owned TV 33, a low-power independent television station.
The station was located in a building on the West Georgia Technical College campus. When Lagrange Police first realized child pornography was being downloaded somewhere in the building, they thought it was a student’s doing, but he soon learned otherwise when investigators searched Mallory’s computer.
Nearly 26,000 files of movies and photos found on Mallory’s computer were more than investigators in Georgia had ever seen in one case.
“Everything that we found was the rape and torture of children,” said Lagrange Police Department Detective Christopher Pritchett.
Investigators said while they were searching for the child porn, they also stumbled upon photos of some of Mallory’s employees. Police said he had cameras under his desk that took photos underneath female employees’ skirts.
The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles told Channel 2 Action News that Mallory was eligible for parole on Dec. 16, 2019. He was granted parole effective May 27, 2020.
According to state sentencing laws, parole eligibility is 7 years for consecutive sentences totaling 21 years or more. Officials said he served past his statutory eligibility date, serving 7 years and 5 months.
While the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles didn’t explain why he was released, they did confirm it was not related to COVID-19.
State officials said Mallory will remain on community supervision until the end of the sentence, for the rest of his life. He is also banished from Troup County, is on electronic monitoring and if there are registered victims, he cannot contact them.
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