Broadalbin Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charge

ALBANY, NY—United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Clifford C. Holly, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division, announced that PAUL NELLIGAN, JR., age 38, of Broadalbin, New York, pled guilty on January 27, 2011 in United States District Court in Albany before District Judge Gary L. Sharpe to count two of an indictment charging him with the receipt of child pornography.

In connection with his plea, NELLIGAN admitted the following during his plea proceedings:

Between about October, 2005 and June 15, 2009, NELLIGAN, while in his residence, used a Compaq Presario computer to access the Internet. While on the Internet, NELLIGAN downloaded and installed a file-sharing program called “Limewire” onto said computer. Limewire is known as a peer-to-peer file sharing program and it allows Internet users to trade and receive digital files from other users of computers with the same file-sharing program.

While surfing the Internet and visiting various websites or while using the Limewire program, NELLIGAN knowingly obtained several electronic files containing still images and videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. NELLIGAN then downloaded some of these still images and videos to the aforementioned computer wherein he would ultimately save the files in various electronic folders.

In or about October, 2008 investigators identified the IP address assigned to the defendant’s Internet account with Time Warner Cable. Investigators further identified that a computer using the defendant’s IP address was permitting other Limewire users seeking child pornography to obtain child pornography from NELLIGAN. On June 15, 2009 investigators executed a search warrant at NELLIGAN’s residence. The aforementioned Compaq computer along with other electronic items were seized and searched.

A forensic examination of the aforementioned Compaq computer, which belonged to NELLIGAN, was subsequently conducted. A number of movie files and a number of still images, all of which depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, as those terms and phrases are defined in Title 18, United States Code, Section 2256(2), were recovered from said computer. Said movies and still images depict individuals under the age of 18 engaged in, among other things, vaginal sex, oral sex, masturbation, and the lascivious exhibition of the genitals and pubic area. All of the images recovered depict actual, as opposed to computer-generated, images of minors engaged in such conduct. A number of these images depict prepubescent minors engaged in such conduct.

On June 15, 2009 NELLIGAN was interviewed by investigators and said, among other things, that he (i) received child pornography through Limewire and various websites, (ii) had been collecting child pornography for two to three years, and (iii) that he would save child pornography still images and movie files to various electronic folders on his computer.

Sentencing was scheduled by Judge Sharpe for May 27, 2011, at 9:00 a.m. in U.S. District Court in Albany, New York. NELLIGAN faces a maximum penalty of 20 years of imprisonment, with a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. NELLIGAN was released pending his sentencing.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Capital Region Cyber Predator Task Force.