Rockford Man Sentenced to Over Six Years in Prison for Possessing Child Pornography

ROCKFORD — A Rockford man has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.

A jury last year convicted STEPHEN CANFIELD, 54, of two counts of possession of child pornography.  On Friday, U.S. District Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins sentenced Canfield to six years and three months in federal prison.

According to evidence presented at trial, Canfield knowingly possessed images of child pornography on his cell phone and in a Dropbox account.  The investigation began when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security received a cyber tip that the Dropbox account contained suspected child pornography.

The sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Matthew Scarpino, Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago.  The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert S. Ladd and Andrew M. Rosati.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.  PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, while also providing critical services to victims.

If you believe you are a victim of sexual exploitation, you are encouraged to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by logging on to www.missingkids.com or by calling 1-800-843-5678.  The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.