Well Known Beer Commercial Actor Gets 20 Months For Child Porn
Posted August 25, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
He played a loud-mouth Scottish man pitching you a brand of ale.
But now the only thing that will be in the cooler is the actor who made that role famous.
Robert Smith, who became known as the spokesman for Alexander Keith’s pale ale, was sentenced to 20 months in jail Monday, after pleading guilty last May to two counts of possessing child pornography and another of distributing it over the Internet.
When he gets out in almost two years, he still won’t be free – he faces an additional three years probation, and won’t be able to go near anyone under 18 unless another adult is present.
Smith’s legal troubles began when cops discovered him downloading the prohibited pictures and putting them up on the file sharing site Limewire for others to view. They eventually found more than 1,000 photos and files on two of his PCs and 14 CDs filled with the prurient photos.
Under the weight of so much evidence, the father of two young children was forced to admit his guilt before a judge last spring. His wife says she had no idea what her husband was up to and the arrest reportedly came as a major shock to the family.
Smith’s case became notorious because of his pitchman’s past. Some people grew to despite the commercial he was associated with, but just about everyone had seen it. He hasn’t represented the company in some time.
