Registered Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material

Baltimore, Maryland – Steven Christopher Kelban, age 50, of Catonsville, Maryland, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.  Kelban was identified as a suspect in the trafficking of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), also called child pornography, during Baltimore County Police Department’s online investigation of the BitTorrent network.  

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Kelly O. Hayes, along with Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Baltimore Field Office, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger, and Chief Robert McCullough of the Baltimore County Police Department (BCPD).

According to his guilty plea, Kelban has two prior convictions for child pornography.  In 2015, Kelban was convicted of possession of obscene matter of persons under 17 in Shelby County, Alabama, and in 2016, he was convicted of distribution of child pornography in Baltimore County, Maryland. 

As detailed in the plea agreement, on November 20, 2023, Kelban was released from imprisonment in Alabama and returned to Maryland.  He registered as a sex offender in Maryland on November 21, 2023, listing an address in Baltimore County, Maryland. 

On November 28, 2023, the Baltimore County Police Department conducted an online investigation of the BitTorrent network to find offenders sharing child pornography.  His IP address was associated with a torrent that contained over 2000 files, including at least one file of suspected child pornography. Between 12:33 am and 1:38 am on November 28, 2023, investigators directly connected to the device and downloaded the torrent, and therefore each file was downloaded directly from the IP address.  The IP address for the device was connected to Kelban’s residence in Baltimore County, the same address that Kelban used when he registered as a sex offender a week prior.

Kelban faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of 20 in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release.  U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett has scheduled sentencing for July 8, 2025, at 11 a.m.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.

U.S. Attorney Hayes commended FBI and the BCPD for their work in the investigation.  Ms. Hayes thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Reema Sood, who is prosecuting the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

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