Anne Arundel County Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography

Baltimore, Maryland – Sergei William Noack, age 23, of West River, Maryland, pleaded guilty today possession of child pornography.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Anne Arundel County Police Chief Tim Altomare; and Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Wes Adams.

According to his plea agreement, on May 8, 2015, an Anne Arundel County Police Department investigator received two Cybertips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that had been received from an internet service provider.  The tips involved an individual, later determined to be Noack, who had: uploaded to his computer an image depicting two prepubescent male minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct; and, sent a photo of a prepubescent minor to another individual and stated via chat that he was having sexual contact with the minor.

That same day, a search warrant was executed at Noack’s residence.  Investigators seized his desktop computer, two external hard drives, and his cell phone.  Noack spoke with law enforcement voluntarily and advised that he had thousands of images of child pornography on his computer, which he searched for and collected from the internet.  Noack admitted that he likes images and videos depicting bondage.  He stated that he meets people online in websites and chat rooms, then moves to applications that conceal the identity of the user to trade child pornography files with those people.

A preliminary forensic examination of the seized items revealed images and videos of children engaged is sexually explicit conduct on the desktop computer and external hard drive.  There were at least eight videos and 90 images of child pornography on the media, including numerous files that portray sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence.  One of the videos was surreptitiously recorded by Noack and depicted a minor prepubescent male using the bathroom in Noack’s home. Noack also stated that approximately two to three years earlier he was alone with a prepubescent minor who was visiting his home and that he touched the back and stomach of the prepubescent minor.  The minor was interviewed in 2015 and stated that Noack would give him a cookie to take off his shirt and then touched him on his bare chest and stomach.  The minor stated that Noack attempted to put his hands under the minor’s pants, towards his genitals, but the minor moved away.  In 2012, Noack sent frequent text messages to the minor, often declaring his love for the minor.

As part of his plea agreement, Noack must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

Noack and the government have agreed that if the Court accepts the plea agreement Noack will be sentenced to at least five years in prison followed by at least 25 years of supervised release.  U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III has scheduled sentencing for June 17, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. 

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 the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.              

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, Anne Arundel County Police Department and Anne Arundel County Police Department for their work in the investigation and recognized Anne Arundel County Assistant State’s Attorney Anastasia Prigge, who handled the state prosecution.  Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Budlow, who is prosecuting the federal case.