L Walker 
A 54-year-old Burnett man was sentenced to prison Friday for using the dark web to obtain child pornography images.
Jeffrey W. Schaum was found guilty of three counts of possession of child pornography in September.
Schaum appeared before Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Sciascia Friday and was sentenced to five years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision.
In addition, he must pay court costs and surcharge for the images and register as a lifetime sex offender.
According to the criminal complaint, a special agent for the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation became suspicious of Schaum’s IP address in March after learning that child pornography files were being requested from a website on the dark web.
The dark web is a term for a collection of websites that exist on an encrypted network and cannot be found by using traditional search engines.
Schaum’s IP address was identified in the Beaver Dam area. In addition, the internet provider gave investigators the subscriber’s name and address.
Schaum was questioned and told officials that he viewed pornography of women over the age of 18 and only occasionally viewed it because his wife was at home most of the time.
According to the complaint, he later confirmed using the dark web to download child pornography. Schaum said he would download some files, watch them and delete them.
