Biddeford Man Pleads Guilty to Child Sexual Exploitation Offenses

PORTLAND, Maine: A Biddeford man pleaded guilty today in federal court to sexually exploiting a minor and transporting child pornography, Acting U.S. Attorney Donald E. Clark announced.

According to court records, in 2016 or 2017, Jason Proulx, 43, recorded sexually explicit videos of a girl who was seven or eight years old at the time. In July 2019, Proulx uploaded the videos to a French website. Investigators with Homeland Security Investigations executed a search warrant at a residence in Biddeford in June 2020. Proulx was present and agreed to speak with investigators. After initially denying any involvement with pornography, he eventually admitted that he had recorded sexually explicit videos of the girl in a room in the residence.

Proulx faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for sexually exploiting a minor. He faces a minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for transporting child pornography. He also faces a term of supervised release of at least five years and up to life. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case with assistance from the Biddeford Police Department.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department’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 via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.