Hope Man Sentenced to 70 Months in Prison for Transporting Child Pornography

Contact: Benjamin M. Block
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Conrad Neal Freeman, 21, of Hope, Maine, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge Nancy Torresen to 70 months in prison and 7 years of supervised release for transporting child pornography and for possession of child pornography. Abbott pleaded guilty to the charges on May 21, 2015.

According to court records, in January 2014, Freeman engaged in an online chat with an undercover Special Agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in California.  In that conversation, Freeman agreed to send the undercover agent images of child pornography in exchange for the opportunity to observe the agent engage in sexual acts with the agent’s purported 11-year-old daughter.  Freeman then sent the undercover agent 10 images and 1 video containing child pornography.  A search warrant later executed at Freeman’s residence in Hope resulted in the recovery of a laptop containing 65 images and 5 videos containing child pornography.
     
The investigation was conducted by HSI. The 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 U.S. Attorneys’ 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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the "resources" tab for information about Internet safety education.