CONCORD - Kyle Desroche, 36, of Brentwood, pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to distributing child pornography, United States Attorney Scott W. Murray announced today.
According to court documents and statements made in court, on Nov. 21, 2017, Dropbox, a cloud-based storage service, sent a CyberTip report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) with 2,325 files of apparent child pornography images and videos loaded to an account belonging to Desroche from an IP address assigned to his residence in Brentwood.
On March 23, 2018, investigators executed a search warrant at Desroche’s residence. During an interview, Desroche admitted using Dropbox and Kik, an online messaging application, on his iPhone and stated he may have received “young stuff" from Kik but claimed to have deleted those items. As authorized by the search warrant, officer seized cellular phones, computer equipment, and other electronic devices. Subsequent forensic examination of those items revealed that Desroche used the Dropbox and Kik applications on his iPhone to share child pornography with like-minded collectors.
On July 11, 2018, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant for Desroche’s Dropbox account. Officers identified approximately 5,942 still images and 2,092 video files of apparent child pornography. NCMEC confirmed that 1,013 still images and 317 video files were of identified child victims.
Desroche is scheduled to be sentenced on October 5, 2020.
“Child pornography is created through the exploitation and abuse of innocent young victims and violates the law," said U.S. Attorney Murray. “Those who distribute these horrific images are re-victimizing these children in a way that has long-term consequences. To protect children from this criminal exploitation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to identify and bring to justice those who distribute child pornography."
“Transmitting online images of child exploitation is a repulsive crime that causes repeated re-victimization when those images are distributed around the globe. HSI’s commitment to combatting these crimes and to holding the distributors of them accountable, is stronger than ever," said Michael Shea, acting Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Boston. “We’re grateful for the continued dedication of our partners in the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Brentwood Police Department, the Portsmouth Police Department, the Exeter Police Department, the Derry Police Department, the Chester Police Department, and the U.S. Attorney for New Hampshire and for their work that has allowed justice to be done for the victims in this case."
This matter was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, with assistance from the Brentwood Police Department, Portsmouth Police Department, Exeter Police Department, Derry Police Department, and Chester Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cam Le.
In February 2006, the Department of Justice introduced Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
