Montgomery County Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Possession of Child Pornography

Greenbelt, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Theodore J. Chuang sentenced Robert Michael Busching, age 26, of Clarksburg, Maryland, today to 10 years in prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release, for possession of and access with intent to view child pornography. Judge Chuang ordered that Busching must pay restitution of $5,000, to be apportioned among three victims whose sexual abuse was documented in some of the child pornography Busching possessed.  Judge Chuang also ordered that upon his release from prison, Busching 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).

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to Busching’s plea agreement, between February 13, 2014 and August 26, 2014, Busching used an internet-based cloud storage system to possess, and to access with intent to view, child pornography.  On March 7, 2014, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a CyberTipline report from the cloud storage system in reference to suspected files of child pornography being uploaded to one of their accounts.  The account was being accessed from an IP address assigned to Busching’s residence in Clarksburg.

On September 9, 2014, agents from the FBI executed a search warrant at Busching’s residence and seized his desktop computer. Agents also interviewed Busching, who advised that he had been communicating with someone in an online chat site who provided Busching with the username and password to access various cloud storage accounts containing child pornography.  Busching further admitted the he created two additional accounts, added videos of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct to both accounts, and shared links to the accounts he created with other people he met in the online chat site.  Investigation showed that Busching accessed the cloud storage accounts, which contained more than 600 images of child pornography, on a number of occasions between February 12, 2014 and August 26, 2014.

Judge Chuang ordered that the federal sentence be served concurrent to the sentence imposed for violating his probation in Maryland v. Robert Busching, Montgomery County Circuit Court, Case No. 117672C.  In that case, Busching was convicted of distribution of child pornography and on March 17, 2011, was sentenced to seven years in prison, with all but five days suspended, followed by five years of supervised probation.

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 for its work in the investigation.  Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lindsay Eyler Kaplan and Kristi N. O’Malley, who prosecuted the case.