Canton Man Admits Producing Child Pornography

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that MICHAEL CRAWFORD, 35, of Canton, pleaded guilty today before United States District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to one count of production of child pornography.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in July 2012, law enforcement officers discovered that an individual from Connecticut had been posting photographs of children on a Russian file-sharing website.  On July 5, 2012, officers executed a state search warrant at CRAWFORD’s residence.  On that date, CRAWFORD admitted that he posted images to the Russian website, that he had taken photographs of a three-year-old minor victim and posted them on the site, and that he had exchanged photographs of the minor victim in order to get better photos from others in trade.  A subsequent search of CRAWFORD’s email account revealed seven sexually explicit photographs of the minor victim taken by CRAWFORD.  CRAWFORD had e-mailed four of the images to other individuals.

In addition to the pictures of the minor victim that he had taken, CRAWFORD’s email account contained approximately 777 images and 24 videos of child pornography.

Judge Shea has scheduled sentencing for July 24, 2013, at which time CRAWFORD faces a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 15 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years.

CRAWFORD has been detained since his arrest on January 9, 2013.

This matter is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the Connecticut State Police and the Canton Police Department.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Sarala V. Nagala and Anastasia E. King.

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov