Former Falmouth Resident Sentenced for Accessing Child Pornography

PORTLAND, Maine-A former Falmouth resident was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Portland for accessing child pornography with intent to view, U.S. Attorney Darcie N. McElwee announced.

U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal sentenced Aaron Cassidy, 49, to two years in prison and five years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a $5,000 assessment applicable to non-indigent defendants in child sexual exploitation cases. He pleaded guilty on July 20, 2021.

According to court records, in March 2015, agents with Homeland Security Investigations were investigating the sharing of child pornography using Ares, a peer-to-peer file-sharing program. They downloaded a child pornography video from an internet protocol address that was determined to be assigned to a residence in Falmouth. Agents obtained a search warrant for the residence and executed it in May 2015. They found a laptop computer in Cassidy's bedroom that was later found to contain evidence of the Ares file-sharing program, as well as images and videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

In imposing sentence, Judge Singal noted that the children depicted in child pornography images often suffer emotional and physical effects for the rest of their lives, as a record of their sexual abuse is permanently available online.

Homeland Security Investigations investigated 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 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, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

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