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Press Release
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that MARK HEALEY was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 90 months in prison for transporting, distributing, and possessing child pornography. HEALEY was convicted of two counts of transporting and distributing child pornography, and two counts of possessing child pornography, after a one-week trial in September 2011. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: “The exploitation of children through pornography is a vile and disturbing crime. We take our responsibility to protect children very seriously as the prosecution and sentencing of this defendant once again demonstrates.”
According to the Complaint, the Superseding Indictment, evidence presented at trial, and statements made in court:
Between February 2009 and June 2010, HEALEY used a peer-to-peer file-sharing program called GigaTribe to download child pornography from the Internet and to distribute it to others, including multiple videos of the abuse of children as young as approximately two years old. In the course of the investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) seized a computer belonging to HEALEY, which contained numerous videos and images of child pornography. The computer also contained chats that HEALEY had engaged in over the file-sharing program, in which he sought out videos and images of the most violent abuse of the youngest children, or as he wrote online, “the yngr and more abusive the better.” HEALEY also suggested in chats that he had previously abused unidentified children.
In addition to his prison term, HEALEY, 39, was also sentenced to 10 years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $400 special assessment.
Mr. Bharara praised the FBI for its outstanding work in the investigation.
The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel C. Richenthal is in charge of the prosecution.
The FBI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at (212) 384-1000. It is staffed around the clock by investigators. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at (800) 843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.