July 24, 2014

York Man Sentenced to 35 Years in Federal Child Exploitation Case

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that Thomas A. O’Connor, 46, of York, Pennsylvania was sentenced to 420 months’ imprisonment by Chief Judge Christopher C. Conner in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg. O’Connor had previously pleaded guilty to production and receipt of child pornography for enticing a young boy to produce sexually explicit videos of himself online. Agents also found thousands of images and videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct on computers in O’Connor’s home. In addition, O’Connor confessed to sexually abusing a young child with special needs for several years.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Meredith A. Taylor.