Worcester Man Sentenced on Child Pornography Charges

BOSTON – A Worcester man was sentenced on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016, in U.S. District Court in Worcester on child pornography charges.  

Christopher Rondeau, 31, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Hillman to 68 months in prison and five years of supervised release.  In July 2016, Rondeau pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography.

On Sept. 21, 2015, law enforcement officers executed a federal search warrant at Rondeau’s residence in Worcester.  In the home, agents recovered several computers and other storage devices with over 1,700 images and videos containing child pornography.   While Rondeau was not home at the time of the warrant, he was located and arrested soon after. 

Following his arrest, Rondeau confessed to downloading child pornography and also explained that agents would find sexualized communications with a 14-year-old girl on his cellphone.  A search of the phone thereafter confirmed the presence of those messages. 

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Matthew Etre, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; Colonel Richard D. McKeon, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; and Worcester Police Chief Steven M. Sargent, made the announcement.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Grady of Ortiz’s Worcester Branch Office prosecuted the case. 

The case is brought as part of Project Safe Childhood.  In 2006, the Department of Justice created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from exploitation and abuse.  Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.