Former sailor who shared child pornography through a CT naval base IP address gets prison
An Illinois man formerly stationed at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Portland this week for possessing child sexual abuse materials, according to federal officials.
Authorities said one of the images was allegedly shared through an IP address associated with military housing on the New London Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Conn.
Chief U.S. District Judge Jon D. Levy sentenced Zakary Williams, 25, to a total of 70 months in prison and five years of supervised release, according to federal officials. Levy also ordered Williams to pay $47,000 in “restitution to the victims depicted in some of the images and videos he possessed,” federal officials said in a statement.
Williams pleaded guilty on May 18, 2022.
Authorities, citing court records, said part of the investigation involved Homeland Security Investigations receiving information from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in May 2019 regarding “Kik Messenger users believed to be in the U.S. who were uploading child pornography.”
HSI determined “Williams was the source of that image” sent to New London and when agents interviewed Williams at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Williams admitted “sharing and viewing child pornography and consented to a search of his cell phone,” federal officials said in a statement. “The investigation revealed that Williams was storing hundreds of images and videos in a cloud-based storage account that depicted the sexual abuse of children. Many of the victims depicted were under the age of 12, and some were infants or toddlers.”
HSI investigated the case with the assistance of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
To report an incident involving the possession, distribution, receipt or production of child pornography file a report with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at www.cybertipline.com or 1-800-843-5678.
