Portland, Maine: United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that
Anthony Thea, 20, of Portland, Maine, pled guilty today in U.S. District Court to transportation
and possession of child pornography.
According to court records, in August 2014, an undercover federal agent identified a
computer later traced to Thea making images of child pornography available for download via a
peer-to-peer file sharing program. On October 9, 2014, federal agents executed a search warrant
at an apartment in South Portland where Thea occasionally stayed and seized a laptop. Thea
admitted owning the laptop and using a peer-to-peer file sharing program to download images of
child pornography. He also said that he had used his cellular telephone to make video recordings
of minors in public restrooms and saved them on his computer.
A forensic analysis of the laptop’s hard drive revealed 2,680 still images and 903 videos
of child pornography and about 80 digital recordings of minor males urinating in restrooms that
Thea recorded between June 2011 and May 2013 without the knowledge or consent of the
victims.
Thea faces between five and 20 years in prison on the transportation count and up to 20
years on the possession count. He also faces a fine of up to $250,000, and supervised release of
up to life on each count. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation
report by the U.S. Probation Office.
The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s
Homeland Security Investigations, with the assistance of the South Portland Police Department.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
