Methuen Man Sentenced to Five Years for Possession of Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office December 03, 2012 |
BOSTON—A Methuen man was sentenced today in federal court for possessing child pornography.
Stephen Hooper, 64, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole to five years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. Judge O’Toole also ordered Hooper, who pleaded guilty to the charge, to pay $2,000 in restitution to victims portrayed in the pornography he possessed.
On April 29, 2011, local and federal law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at Hooper’s home. The agents seized, among other things, a computer hard drive that contained more than 3,000 media files containing child pornography, including more than 900 videos. The files contained graphic depictions of sexual abuse, including S&M imagery and others that were particularly violent. Hooper had been downloading and sharing child pornography using a peer-to-peer Internet network. Hooper admitted to agents that he had downloaded thousands of videos and photographs of child pornography.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Boston Field Division; and Bruce Foucart, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric P. Christofferson of Ortiz’s Major Crimes Unit.