Manchester Man Found Guilty on Federal Child Exploitation Charges

CONCORD, NH—Robert Joubert, 60, of Manchester, was found guilty on three counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of child pornography following a three-day jury trial in United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, announced United States Attorney John P. Kacavas.

The investigation began in March 2012 when the York, Maine Police Department received an e-mail from a New Hampshire resident warning them that Joubert, a youth baseball coach, had a history of inappropriate contacts with children. At the time, Joubert was instructing at the Seacoast Baseball Academy in York, Maine, after having been previously employed at a baseball academy in Newington, New Hampshire. The ensuing investigation led to interviews with numerous young men who told authorities that Joubert had sexually assaulted them. One man reported being sexually assaulted by Joubert in the 1980s.

A search of Joubert’s property in June 2012 revealed numerous photographs and videotapes of adolescent boys. One videotape contained film of Joubert sexually molesting a young boy. Evidence at trial revealed that Joubert had been the child’s baseball coach and developed a close friendship with the family of the victim. The victim, now 21, testified that Joubert sexually assaulted him over a two-year period. He was unaware that Joubert had filmed the abuse.

United States Attorney John P. Kacavas praised the jury’s verdicts and said, “This defendant is a quintessential predator. He deliberately sought out and insinuated himself into the lives of the most vulnerable young boys, gaining their trust by portraying himself as a coach and father figure. He then betrayed that trust by sexually exploiting those boys to produce child pornography. Identifying, finding, and prosecuting predators like the defendant has been, and will continue to be, among the highest priorities of my office.”

Joubert is scheduled to be sentenced on February 18, 2014 at 10:00 a.m.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Concord Police Department, The Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office, Manchester Police Department, York, and Maine Police Department and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Helen Fitzgibbon.

Criminal charges related to this investigation are pending against Joubert in Hillsborough and Merrimack Counties.