Casselberry Man Sentenced to Life for Aggravated Sexual Abuse of Minors

ORLANDO—U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that U.S. District Chief Judge Anne C. Conway today sentenced Paul C. Lorenz, III (62, Casselberry, Florida) to life in federal prison for aggravated sex abuse of minors, production of child pornography, and possession of child pornography. The court also ordered Lorenz to pay more than $72,000 in restitution to the victims of the offenses and to forfeit his interest in the computers and video cameras that he used to commit the offenses.

Lorenz pleaded guilty on September 24, 2012. “Today’s sentence sends a clear message about the priority that we place upon protecting our children from criminals like this,” said U.S. Attorney Robert O’Neill. “Together, along with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute serious offenses such as these and work to pursue the stiffest penalties under the law.”

According to court documents, Lorenz babysat several children while employed as a maintenance technician at a Church in Pasadena, Maryland. During this time, he sexually abused a young girl under his care over the course of approximately six years, beginning when she was 5 years old. Lorenz recorded the abuse using his digital camera and video recorder and stored the pictures and videos on his hard drive. He moved to Casselberry, Florida, in October 2011 and brought the videos with him. Last year, in January 2012 and March 2012, Lorenz returned to Maryland to assist with family issues. While in Maryland, he babysat another 5 year old girl and sexually abused her. As he had done with his previous victim, Lorenz recorded the abuse and stored the pictures and videos on his computer.

Lorenz returned to Florida in April 2012. A few weeks later, law enforcement officers learned of the abuse, obtained a search warrant for Lorenz’s home, and seized his computers and cameras. A computer forensics examiner located over 14,000 pictures and 1,500 videos documenting Lorenz’s abuse of the two children on Lorenz’s electronic storage devices. In addition, the examiner located thousands of images of child pornography documenting the sexual abuse of unidentified children on Lorenz’s storage devices. Lorenz told investigators that he had downloaded the child pornography images from the Internet during the previous 15 years.

This case was investigated by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, the Anne Arundel County Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Karen L. Gable.

It is another case 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 (CEOS), 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 tab “Resources.”