Covington man pleads guilty to uploading nearly 100 child porn files to Google Drive

COVINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) — A Covington man pleaded guilty to 190 child pornography-related charges on Monday, the day before he was scheduled to stand trial.

Covington police said the investigation began after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The tip claimed 95 child pornography files were uploaded to a Google Drive account.

According to a release by the Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney, 22-year-old Thomas Gage Whaley pleaded guilty to:

• 95 counts of possession or viewing of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor.
• 95 counts of distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor

NCMEC noted that the videos and photos showed naked children undergoing sexual acts by adults. Most of the children in the files were prepubescent, with some possibly as young as toddlers.

In light of the contents shared by NCMEC, police got a search warrant for the electronics inside a home Whaley shared with multiple people, the attorney’s office said. He came to the door several minutes after the police arrived without his cell phone.

The police said Whaley claimed he left his phone inside, but his phone was not able to be found.

As the investigation continued, a Covington detective claimed that he uploaded hundreds of photos and videos of child pornography over several months in addition to the 95 files on the Google Drive.

“Cloud accounts often offer more than just electronic storage,” Arnzen explained, “because those accounts provide multiple ways users can share files with others, including making the files accessible by anyone with the account link. With services like Google Drive and Dropbox, for example, offenders can now not only save their child porn but share it with just the click of a button.”

The attorney’s office said Whaley entered the guilty plea knowing there were no plans to offer any plea “deals.”

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Emily Arnzen is recommending the maximum sentence under Kentucky law, the release noted.

Since Whaley’s actions happened before the 2024 amendments to Kentucky law, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Had the files been uploaded after July, he would face up to a maximum of 70 years.

Whaley is scheduled to be sentenced in August 2025.

After being released, he will be a lifetime sex offender registrant.