Windham Man Sentenced to Three Years on Child Pornography Charge

PORTLAND, ME—United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty, II announced that Paul Liming, 65, of Windham, was sentenced yesterday in United States District Court by Judge Nancy Torresen to three years of imprisonment and 10 years of supervised release for possession of child pornography. Liming pled guilty to the charge on January 4, 2013.

According to court records, in January 2011, Liming brought a computer to the Best Buy store in South Portland, Maine, and asked for assistance in recovering data from its hard drive. A Best Buy technician discovered several files that appeared to contain child pornography. A forensic examination conducted on the computer by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) pursuant to a search warrant revealed over 600 image files and 200 video files containing child pornography. Although Liming had no criminal history and was retired from a career as an executive, the court imposed the three-year sentence because of the seriousness of the crime that causes the children depicted to be repeatedly victimized.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 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, 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.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI.