A Lynchburg man accused of using his work computer to superimpose sexual images of himself over otherwise innocent photos of an 11-year-old girl is facing a possible sentence of 50 years in prison if he’s convicted.
Ronald Wojdyla, 57, of Wyndview Drive, is charged with 10 counts of producing child pornography. After hearing Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Doucette’s case Wednesday, Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judge Kenneth Farrar found there was enough evidence to send the charges forward to a grand jury for consideration.
The girl’s mother was so upset when shown the images in court Wednesday that she became sick in the hallway outside the courtroom.
The woman said she took her daughter to a beach vacation with Wojdyla and his family in August. She said she didn’t notice anything unusual about the man’s picture-taking at the time but probably would have if she had been around him more.
She tearfully identified her daughter in the 10 photographs in the album found in Wojdyla’s office.
“She told us she was not touched,” the mother said, adding that her daughter doesn’t know she was the subject in the images.
Tom Ligue, Wojdyla’s boss at Alliance Industrial Corp., testified the images were discovered on a computer and in a photo album found in his office.
Ligue said he became suspicious in September after Wojdyla appeared to close the same file on his computer every time he walked into the office.
While Wojdyla was at lunch one day, he testified, he opened the file and found it was a story about a sexual encounter between Wojdyla and a young girl.
“The first paragraph mentioned a fantasy with a young girl as something he hadn’t done in 33 years,” Ligue said.
Wojdyla was then fired and items from his office were turned over to police, Ligue said.
Investigator John Lloyd of the Lynchburg Police Department testified Wojdyla told him that he used his computer at work to manipulate photos he had taken of the girl during the family’s trip to the beach.
Using a computer program, he was able to superimpose nude adult genitals over the girl’s bikini and combine those images with photos he had taken of himself to appear as if he was having sex with her.
“He told me it was purely fiction,” Lloyd testified.
The detective said Wojdyla’s home computer was being checked for similar pictures and that test results weren’t available yet.
If he is convicted, the charges carry a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison on the first offense, 15 years on subsequent offenses.
The next grand jury is scheduled to meet Jan. 5. Wojdyla is free on a $20,000 secured bond.
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