Westbrook Man Sentenced to 18 Years for Sexually Exploiting a Child

PORTLAND, Maine:  A Westbrook man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Portland for sexually exploiting a child.

U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock, Jr. sentenced Rayevon Deschambault, 28, to 216 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release. Deschambault was convicted of two counts of sexually exploiting a child following a two-day jury trial in U.S. District Court in Portland in January 2023. Deschambault also received a concurrent 27-month sentence on an unrelated charge of distributing cocaine base, stemming from his sale of cocaine base to a confidential informant in August 2019. Deschambault pleaded guilty to the drug trafficking charge on March 30, 2023.

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, in August 2019, Deschambault sexually abused a 14-year-old victim for the purpose of creating child sexual abuse material. The videos Deschambault produced were found on his cell phone after investigators seized the phone in August 2019.

In sentencing Deschambault, Judge Woodcock noted that videorecording of sexually exploitative acts “places this crime at a different level” because “videotaping is a potentially permanent visual record of the crime.”

The FBI and Portland Police Department investigated the case, with assistance from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.

“Rayevon Deschambault’s actions were beyond heinous. He sexually abused a child and recorded the abuse so he could savor it whenever he wanted.  No child should ever have to experience this,” said Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division. “We thank the victim in this case for cooperating with law enforcement. With today’s sentence, Mr. Deschambault won’t be able to victimize anyone else for years to come.”

“Mr. Deschambault sexually abused a child then took it even further to memorialize that abuse on video,” said U.S. Attorney Darcie N. McElwee. “Protecting Maine children from the lasting and traumatic impact of sexual exploitation is among the most necessary and important work we do at the US Attorney’s Office In support of our law enforcement partners at every level,”

Reports of child sexual exploitation are increasing: In 2022, The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline received 32 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation. That included more than 80,000 reports of online enticement of children for sexual acts, an increase of 82% from 2021 to 2022, and more than 31 million reports of child sexual abuse materials. Victimization can take place across every platform, including social media, messaging apps, gaming platforms, etc. To make a CyberTipline Report, visit https://report.cybertip.org/.  If you are in Maine and you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted or abused, you can get help by calling the free, private 24-hour statewide sexual assault helpline at 1-800-871-7741.

Project Safe Childhood: This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-me/psc.

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