WASHINGTON - A former Dracut, Mass. man was sentenced yesterday for transportation, receipt and possession of child pornography, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division, United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan of the District of Massachusetts and Acting Special Agent in Charge Matthew Etre, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Boston Field Office, announced today.

At a sentencing hearing on June 28, 2006, in federal court in Boston, Mass., Darren Wilder, 36, was sentenced to 15 years in a federal correction facility after a jury found him guilty on March 21, 2006 of the distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography.  After completion of his sentence, Wilder will be placed on supervised release for five years.  Wilder was required to receive a sentence of no less than 15 years due to a previous child pornography conviction.

The investigation that resulted in Wilder’s arrest revealed that Wilder distributed images of a child engaging in sexually explicit conduct by sending them to an individual who advertised his desire to trade such images in an Internet newsgroup bulletin board.  Wilder also received images of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct, including movie files downloaded from newsgroups.
 
The case was investigated by ICE, with the assistance of Lead Computer Forensic Specialist Lam Nguyen of the Justice Department’s High Technology Investigative Unit, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.  Wilder was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Sherri A. Stephan of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Gershengorn of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.   

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