Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Edward Tillinghast, age 47, of Chesapeake City, Maryland, today for production of child pornography.
The sentencing was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Stephen M. Schenning; Special Agent in Charge Andre R. Watson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; and Cecil County State’s Attorney Steven Trostle.
According to his plea agreement, on May 17, 2016 Maryland State Police, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Elkton Police Department, executed a search warrant for the Defendant’s residence. The agents recovered several electronic devices. Tillinghast admitted he had viewed child pornography using his computers and had used peer-to-peer file sharing programs to obtain the child pornography. The total number of relevant images recovered is at least 600. The defendant also admitted to sexually abusing a minor victim over the past year. Images recovered from at least one of the defendant’s electronic devices showed that he had abused the minor victim starting when the minor victim was eleven years old.
As part of his plea agreement, Tillinghast must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.
Acting United States Attorney Stephen M. Schenning commended Homeland Security Investigations, the Maryland State Police and the Cecil County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation. Mr. Schenning thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Ayn Ducao, who prosecuted the federal case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
