Department of Justice SealDepartment of Justice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
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CRM
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888

Nantucket Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Producing, Transporting and Possessing Child Pornography

WASHINGTON – William H. Constable, 54, of Nantucket, Mass., was sentenced today in Boston to serve 25 years in prison for producing, transporting and possessing child pornography, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan for the District of Massachusetts announced. U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. also ordered Constable to pay a $50,000 fine, forfeit various items of property used in his crimes and serve a life term of supervised release.

Constable pleaded guilty on March 11, 2008, to an indictment that charged him with seven counts of producing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. The charges stemmed from videos Constable made of sexual assaults he committed upon children while visiting Southeast Asia. In his guilty plea, Constable admitted that he filmed himself numerous times having sexual intercourse with at least 30 pre-pubescent girls during these visits. Passport records reflect that he traveled to Thailand, Cambodia or Vietnam every year for the past 14 years, with the exception of 1995.

Constable’s crimes were discovered when personnel from a Barnstable, Mass.-area hotel where Constable had stayed reported finding suspected child pornography on a digital camera. Constable later returned to the hotel to reclaim the camera, identifying himself as the owner and was subsequently arrested by local authorities.  He admitted that he had traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, paid to have sex with children, and then preserved his crimes on video.  Constable has been in federal custody since Oct. 25, 2007, when he was charged in a federal complaint and arrested by federal authorities after being held by local authorities.

Authorities reviewed the camera found in the hotel and identified numerous digital video clips in which children are engaged in sex acts with an adult man whom they confirmed was Constable. In one instance, a clip depicts Constable raping an approximately seven year old child who is screaming and crying. Another clip captures Constable raping a different child, also approximately seven years old, who has a sheet or rag stuffed in her mouth. Pursuant to a search warrant, authorities also recovered from Constable’s home more than 79 camcorder cassettes and DVDs containing child pornography he produced of himself raping Asian children.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Gershengorn and Trial Attorney Elizabeth M. Yusi of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. The case was investigated by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Barnstable Police Department and the Nantucket Police Department.

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