A recent Covington resident pleaded guilty to seven counts of possession of child pornography and possession of marijuana Wed-nesday in District Judge Richard Swartz’ court.

Swartz sentenced George Bunch, 52, to 20 years for the pornography charges and another 20 years for the marijuana charge. It was Bunch’s third offense for possession of marijuana, plus Bunch was convicted for obscenity in East Baton Rouge Parish in 2005. Swartz considered Bunch a career criminal, which lead to the long sentence. The two sentences will be served concurrently. Usually, possession of child pornography has a sentence of two to 10 years. A third offense for possession of marijuana carries a 20-year sentence

Bunch had recently moved to Covington, when he was arrested April 21 of this year after Covington police got reports that a strange man was looking at pornography on the computers in the Covington Library.

George Bunch

Library officials also said he was looking at children, and they asked him to leave the library.

Police found Bunch behind the library. When searching Bunch, police found a notebook containing children’s names and descriptions of his encounters with them. They also found marijuana and a homemade marijuana pipe.

Bunch told police that he has just moved from Mississippi to find a halfway house after serving his term for obscenity. He was staying in the living quarters of the Faith Bible Church in Covington.

Bunch gave police permission to search his living quarters, where they found child pornography, and several catalogs of children’s clothing, displaying young children.

Bunch told Covington police that he was a sex offender and that he liked having sex with children.