New Zealand Man Pleads Guilty to Transporting Child Pornography

Portland, Maine: Acting United States Attorney Richard W. Murphy announced that Bobby Mataara Owens, 40, of Turangi, New Zealand, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to transporting child pornography.

According to court records, in December 2016, a federal agent in Maine was investigating the sharing of child pornography over the internet. The agent chatted online with Owens, who sent the agent several images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Further investigation revealed that Owens was using an IP address assigned to a residence in Valley Village, California. A federal search warrant was obtained for the residence and executed later the same day. Owens was present at the residence, and admitted to investigators that he had sent the images to the agent earlier in the day.

Owens faces between five and 20 years in prison, between five years and life on supervised release and a $250,000 fine. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Los Angeles Police Department.