A family physician in Tolland who was active in the Boy Scouts and provided physical examinations to boys involved in teen-aged sports was sentenced to 51 months in prison Tuesday after being caught with one of the biggest child porn collection ever found in Connecticut. Federal prosecutors said Dr. Carl Koplin’s pornography collection, which he made available to others across the Internet, was large enough to fill 170 DVDs. When compiling his obscene collection from film made available by others, prosecutors said, Koplin once found a pornographic photograph of a boy he had treated for depression. Rather than report the photograph, as physicians are required, prosecutors said Koplin deleted the image. “This defendant’s appalling collection of child pornography was one of the largest that we have seen here in Connecticut,”
said U.S. Attorney David B. Fein. “It’s reprehensible that a practicing physician who held such an important position of trust in the community victimized so many children by collecting and trading sexually explicit images of them.”Koplin was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello.In his argument for a short sentence, defense attorney Alan J. Sobol said there is no evidence that Koplin behaved toward children in a predatory fashion or personally produced obscene recordings or photographs of children. In addition, he said no child has ever complained of mistreatment by Koplin.”He is the polar opposite of an inveterate predator who uses his power to prey on the most vulnerable children,” Sobol said in a memo to the court. “Rather, Mr. Koplin exhibits characteristics of a sad, mild-mannered nerd, bullied mercilessly in his youth, somewhat ostracized in his medical practice, who sought any means of escape from his resultant crushing, near-lifelong depression.”Prosecutors said a Virginia-based FBI agent discovered that Koplin was using his computer to trade pornography. His collection was found after agents searched his home two years ago. He pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography last year and has been free on bail since.The Hartford Courant, Edmund Mahony
