NANTUCKET MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO PRODUCING AND POSSESSING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

BOSTON—A Nantucket man pled guilty yesterday to an Indictment charging him with producing and possessing child pornography.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - New England Field Division and Bruce M. Foucart, Special Agent in Charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement - New England Field Office, announced that WILLIAM H. CONSTABLE, 53, of Nantucket, MA, pled guilty to an Indictment charging him with seven counts of producing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.

At the plea hearing, the government alleged that CONSTABLE was first identified when an attorney representing a Hyannis area hotel contacted the Barnstable police department about a camera left by a guest in the hotel. The attorney informed the police that the camera, subsequently identified as belonging to CONSTABLE, contained graphic pictures of young children in sexually explicit situations. CONSTABLE returned to the hotel later in the day and identified himself as the camera’s owner in order to reclaim it. At that time, he was questioned and arrested by local police. CONSTABLE told the Barnstable police that he had traveled to Bangkok, Thailand and paid people to have sex with children. Although he initially described the children as being between the ages of 12 and 14, he later told the police they were as young as 7 years old. CONSTABLE told the police that he had had sex with approximately 30 children and that he then downloaded some of the video clips into his digital camera in order to “recreate the moment.” He stated that he had a problem and needed help.

Thereafter, as stated by the government at the plea hearing, State and local police seized over 79 camcorder cassettes and DVDs from CONSTABLE’s residence. The FBI examined over 79 of those items and found all of them contained video clips of CONSTABLE raping young children. At the plea hearing, the government described one of those clips as depicting CONSTABLE raping a child approximately 7 years old, who is screaming and crying in pain. In another clip, a child approximately 7 years old has a sheet or rag stuffed in her mouth as CONSTABLE raped her. In another clip, CONSTABLE is shown molesting three children, all of whom appear to be under the age of 10, at the same time. The government estimated that there were children as young as 5 years old being raped by CONSTABLE and filmed. According to CONSTABLE’s passports, in the past 14 years there appears to be only one year that CONSTABLE did not travel to Asia.

CONSTABLE is presently in federal custody and has been since his arrest by federal authorities on October 25, 2007. At a previous detention hearing in federal court, CONSTABLE and his family offered to post over four million dollars in property to gain CONSTABLE’s release. In denying CONSTABLE’s request for release, Magistrate Judge Bowler wrote at the time that “the stored images on the defendant’s own camera provide horrific evidence of his total depravity and disregard for the dignity of other human beings.” The Court went on the write that the “repeated sexual conduct preserved on the defendant’s camera shocks the conscience. The mental and physical damage done to the small girls with whom the defendant had sexual activity is beyond imagination.”

CONSTABLE faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison, up to a $250,000 fine, and a term of supervised release of between at least five years to life on each of the seven counts of production, and a maximum of ten years in prison on the possession count.

Sentencing is schedule for June 10, 2008, at 2:00 p.m., before Judge George A. OToole Jr., in U.S. District Court.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dana Gershengorn and Trial Attorney Elizabeth M. Yusi of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Barnstable Police Department and the Nantucket Police Department.

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