Keene Man Pleads Guilty to Sexually Exploiting a Child

Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that Benjamin Gagnon, 35, of Keene, New Hampshire, pled guilty today in U.S. District Court in Concord, New Hampshire to sexually exploiting a minor.

According to court records, in January 2017, Gagnon, who was in New Hampshire, persuaded a minor female in Texas to create still images and videos depicting the minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The minor transmitted the images and videos to Gagnon over the internet. Gagnon later uploaded the images to an online account, where they were found by investigators in August 2017.

Gagnon faces between 15 and 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and between five years and life on supervised release. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.

The investigation was conducted by the Derry, Hinsdale and Keene, New Hampshire Police Departments; the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation; and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.