An Ashland man pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to possessing more than 1,000 images of child pornography and was sentenced to four years in prison, officials said.

David Noel Boyd, 48, faced a maximum 10-year penalty, but was forthcoming with investigators concerning his actions and received a lighter sentence, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Fong.

"He owned up to his crimes and was very cooperative," Fong said. "The sentence is still strict."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents searched Boyd's home on Beach Street in October 2006 and seized two laptop computers and a digital camera. They shipped the hardware to the Central Point Police Department, where detectives with the Southern Oregon High-Tech Crimes Unit found more than 1,000 images of child pornography stored on the computers.

"There is no evidence Mr. Boyd was producing the images himself and we do not believe the images are of local children," said Central Point police Sgt. Josh Moulin, the high-tech crimes supervisor.

ICE agents were put on Boyd's trail two years ago while investigating a Web site selling child porn images. Boyd was using his bank card to purchase the images. It didn't take long for authorities to trace the account number back to Boyd and make the arrest, Fong said.

"This type of crime leaves a lot of information for investigators to collect," Fong said. "They are able to obtain account numbers, e-mail addresses and lists of names from these illegal sites."

Boyd does not have any previous convictions for sex crimes in Oregon. He will have to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

Fong appreciates the work done by Central Point's high-tech crime lab. Moulin said his team has made child porn cases a priority.

"They are sometimes able to return findings much faster than federal investigators," Fong said. "They also are valuable local witnesses in these types of cases."

Reach reporter Chris Conrad at 776-4471; or e-mail cconrad@mailtribune.com.