Former Middle School Teacher Sentenced on Child Pornography Charges
| U.S. Attorney’s Office May 11, 2011 |
BOSTON—A former Tyngsboro middle school teacher was sentenced today in federal court on child pornography charges.
Douglas L. Wright, 41, of North Chelmsford, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro to five years of imprisonment to be followed by 10 years of supervised release after pleading guilty on February 17, 2011 to transportation and possession of child pornography. Wright was formerly employed as a middle school teacher with the Tyngsboro Public Schools.
Wright used an online peer-to-peer file-sharing program to offer and transmit images of child pornography on the Internet. Wright admitted to federal agents that he had been interested in child pornography for several years, to downloading child pornography images in the past few years, and to possessing hundreds of child pornography images. The images included those of prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Office made the announcement today. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the Chelmsford Police Department offering significant assistance. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Yoon of Ortiz’s Major Crimes Unit and CEOS Trial Attorney Bonnie Kane of the Criminal Division.