Maine Man Sentenced to Thirty-Five Years for Child Exploitation Offenses including Production of Child Sexual Abuse Imagery

PORTLAND, Maine: A Maine man was sentenced on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Portland for sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography.

Chief U.S. District Court Lance E. Walker sentenced Patrick Hamlin, 48, to 35 years in prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Hamlin pled guilty on May 29, 2025.

According to court records, in May 2024, federal and state law enforcement officers executed a residential search warrant following a cyber tip report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Hamlin had uploaded child sexual abuse material on a messaging application. During the search warrant execution, investigators seized Hamlin’s digital media devices and observed a child-like sex device that the defendant admitted to acquiring. A forensic examination revealed thousands of child sexual abuse images, including sexually explicit photographs of a child under the age of 12 that the defendant had produced. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is limiting identifying information to protect the privacy of the minor victims.

The Maine State Police and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case. The defendant is also being prosecuted for unlawful sexual contact and unlawful sexual touching offenses committed against a minor by the Androscoggin County District Attorney’s Office.

“Hamlin has earned every single year of his 35-year federal prison sentence. He not only sexually abused a young child, he photographed the abuse and shared it with like-minded predators on the internet, immortalizing his victim’s trauma. This sentence keeps him out of our community and away from children for a very, very long time,” said Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Krol for Homeland Security Investigations in New England. “We are grateful for our law enforcement partners in Maine who share our dedication to bringing justice to victims of child sexual abuse.”

“This prison sentence sends a strong message that the kind of abhorrent conduct committed by Hamlin will be punished to the full extent of the law,” said U.S. Attorney Benson. “This office remains committed to relentlessly pursuing and prosecuting those who sexually exploit our most vulnerable, in coordination with our federal law enforcement partners and the Maine State Police.”

To report an incident involving the possession, distribution, receipt or production of child sexual abuse material: Child sexual abuse material – referred to in legal terms as “child pornography” – captures the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. These images document victims’ exploitation and abuse, and they suffer revictimization every time the images are viewed. In 2023, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 36 million reports of the possession, manufacture, or distribution of child sexual abuse materials. To file a report with NCMEC, go to https://report.cybertip.org or call 1-800-843-5678. If you are in Maine and you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted or abused, you can get help by calling the free, private 24-hour statewide sexual assault helpline at 1-800-871-7741.

Project Safe Childhood: 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, visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-me/psc.

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