4 Years for Sex Offender Who Watched Child Porn in Library

A registered sex offender from Culver City was sentenced to four years in state prison on a charge accusing the 56-year-old man of looking at child pornography in the Santa Monica library.

Richard Francis Gibbons was sentenced after signing a plea agreement with Los Angeles County prosecutors in November, the Santa Monica Police announced Thursday. In the deal, Gibbons pleaded guilty to one count of being in control of child pornography.

The police arrested Gibbons Oct. 9 at the Santa Monica Library Ocean Park branch at 2601 Main St. One week earlier, a security guard reported observing a man viewing what he believed was child porn on one of the public computers.  The man left the library before he could be detained, said police spokesman Sgt. Richard Lewis.

"The suspect returned to the library and was observed viewing child pornography by a plainclothes officer assigned to the case," Lewis said. "During a search of Gibbons' personal property, he was found to be in possession of knit gloves and duct tape."

The Culver City man has three prior convictions. He was previously found guilty of two counts of annoying or molesting a child under the age of 18 and one court of lewd or lascivious acts with a child younger than 14, according to the Megan's Law website.