Waterloo Man Sentenced For Production And Possession Of Child Pornography

CONTACT:      Barbara Burns
PHONE:         (716) 843-5817
FAX:            (716) 551-3051

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Ronald T. Spoor, 52, of Waterloo, NY, who was convicted following a jury trial of production and possession of child pornography, was sentenced to 30 years in prison and 15 years supervised release by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bradley E. Tyler and Craig Gestring, who handled the prosecution of the case, stated that in December 2012, the New York State Police were alerted by officials at a school in Seneca County, NY, after minor students indicated they had been abused by Spoor. The defendant was interviewed by investigators and admitted to abusing two victims under the age of 10 years old. An investigation into the abuse allegations led State Police to execute a search warrant at the defendant’s Waterloo residence. Troopers seized computer hard drives, two pinhole cameras, and several flash drives. A forensic examination determined that four of the hard drives and a pinhole camera contained videos and images of child pornography including minor boys who had been videotaped by the defendant without their knowledge.

State Troopers notified the Department of Homeland Security for investigative support. Special Agents discovered that the pinhole camera had been installed by the defendant in a bathroom and used by the defendant to record minor children. The defendant also used a pinhole camera to surreptitiously record naked children in his camper. Agents conducted an interview with the defendant during the investigation. In that interview, Spoor admitted to using peer-to-peer software to search for child pornography online using specific search terms. Agents forensically recovered over 18,000 chargeable images involving children as young as toddlers being raped and sexually abused. Some of the material also included sadistic or masochistic images or images depicting violence.  

In total, the federal investigation identified an additional three children, known to the defendant, who he victimized. During today’s sentencing, Judge Siragusa called the defendant “socially depraved and morally bankrupt.” He also referred to Spoor as a sexual predator. The federal sentence will run concurrent to Spoor’s state sentence of five years, which he got for performing fellatio on a child less than 10 years of age.

The conviction is the culmination of an investigation on the part of the New York State Police, under the direction of Major Craig Hanesworth and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James C. Spero.