Simsbury Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Possessing Child Pornography Project Safe Childhood
| U.S. Attorney’s Office August 06, 2010 |
David B, Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JOHN BEILSTEIN, 59, of Adams Road in the Weatogue section of Simsbury, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns in New Haven to 24 months of imprisonment, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for possessing child pornography. BEILSTEIN also was ordered to pay a fine in the amount of $10,000. He pleaded guilty to the offense on May 19, 2010.
According to court documents and statements made in court, on approximately October 31, 2006, BEILSTEIN used Google’s “Hello” program to send 84 images of child pornography to an undercover law enforcement officer in Canada who had assumed the identity of a child pornography collector. Seven of the images have been identified as known victims.
BEILSTEIN has been ordered to report to prison on September 20, 2010. Following his release from incarceration, BEILSTEIN must register as a sex offender. In addition, special conditions of his 10-year term of supervised release include that he receive mental health treatment, that he allow the U.S. Probation Office to monitor his Internet usage, and that he have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18 years of age.
This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Simsbury Police Department, along with the Connecticut Computer Crimes Task Force, which includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Peter S. Jongbloed.
U.S. Attorney Fein noted that this prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.