Wellsburg resident, a repeat sex offender, charged with possession of child pornography
A Chemung County man who is a registered sex offender faces at least a decade in prison after his arrest on child pornography charges.
The U.S. Attorney's Office announced Scott Landmesser, 57, of Wellsburg, was charged by criminal complaint with possession of child pornography by an individual with a prior sex offense conviction.
In June of this year, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received two notifications from Microsoft that files of suspected child pornography were scanned using BingImage, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan K. McGuire, who is prosecuting the case.
A subsequent investigation traced the files to Landmesser, McGuire said.
On Sept. 14, New York State Police executed a search warrant at Landmesser’s Suffern Hill Road residence, reportedly seizing multiple electronic devices, including a desktop computer, a laptop computer, and a thumb drive.
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A cursory, on-site review of the desktop and laptop computers identified multiple images of suspected child pornography, according to McGuire.
A forensic review of the thumb drive recovered one video and approximately 200 images of child pornography. The laptop and desktop computers each contained hundreds of files of suspected child pornography, prosecutors said.
Landmesser is a Level 3 sex offender, the most serious level, with two prior convictions.
In 1988, he was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse for engaging in sexual conduct with a 3-year-old child. In 1998, he was convicted of sodomy: intercourse by forcible compulsion, for kidnapping and repeatedly raping an ex-girlfriend.
Landmesser made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marian W. Payson and was detained. If convicted, he faces a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years in prison.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force assisted in the investigation.
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This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Wellsburg resident charged with possession of child pornography
