Sanbornton Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material

CONCORD – A Sanbornton man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Concord to possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young announces.

Timothy Ryan, 35, pleaded guilty to a superseding information charging him with an additional count of possession of CSAM, for a total of two counts of possession of CSAM. On December 12, 2022, Ryan was originally charged by complaint with one count of possession of CSAM.  U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe scheduled sentencing for October 8, 2024.

The defendant was identified as a top offender in the state of New Hampshire for supplying CSAM through the peer-to-peer network BitTorrent.  Investigators traced the illicit internet activity to his residence. On December 13, 2022, a federal search warrant was executed on search his electronic devices.  Forensic examination of the defendant’s cell phone revealed the presence of approximately 2,600 files of apparent CSAM. 

In November 2023, while Ryan was on bond for his original federal CSAM charge, investigators with the Department of Veteran’s Affairs received information that an IP address associated with one of its residential facilities in Massachusetts was being used regularly to distribute known CSAM on the BitTorrent network.  Further investigation revealed that Ryan had moved into that facility around the same time that the illicit activity was first observed.  In December 2023, federal authorities executed a second search warrant for Ryan’s private room at the facility, resulting in the seizure of more electronic devices containing hundreds of images of CSAM.

The charging statute provides a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, a minimum 5 years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 and mandatory restitution. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General led the investigation. Valuable assistance was provided by the United States Secret Service, the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Nashua Police Department, the Grafton County Sheriff’s Department, and the Sanbornton Police Department and the U.S. Veterans Affairs Police Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kasey Weiland is prosecuting the case.  

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 the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

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