Eric Eoin Marques, a 36-year-old dual national of the United States and Ireland, was sentenced to 324 months, or 27 years, in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for conspiracy to advertise child pornography.
According to court documents, between July 24, 2008, and July 29, 2013, Marques operated a free anonymous hosting service located on the dark web, an area of the internet that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable. The hosting service hosted websites that allowed users to view and share images documenting the sexual abuse of children, including the abuse of prepubescent minors and violent sexual abuse.
The investigation revealed that the hosting service contained over 200 child exploitation websites that housed millions of images of child exploitation material. Over 1.97 million of these images and/or videos were not previously known by law enforcement. Many of these images involved sadistic abuse of infants and toddlers.
“The defendant’s web service anonymously hosted hundreds of insidious criminal communities dedicated to the sexual exploitation of children, which openly and notoriously spread millions of images of child sexual abuse across the globe,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“Eric Marques was one of the largest facilitators of child pornography in the world,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner for the District of Maryland.
Marques pleaded guilty on February 6, 2020 and was sentenced on no specified date. He operated the hosting service from Dublin, Ireland. The case is part of a global investigation that targeted thousands of users of more than 200 websites operating on the Tor network and dedicated to the trade of child pornography.
Eric Eoin Marques’s sentence sends a clear message that law enforcement will hold perpetrators accountable for such egregious crimes, regardless of their location in the world.
Related Federal Cases
- Peter Flynn, Child Pornography Distribution, Greenbelt MD, 2015 · Ohio
- Nicholas Paul Pedone, Possessing Child Pornography, Baltimore MD, 2023 · Maryland
- Jason Lewis Schwamberger, Possession of Child Pornography, Baltimor… · Texas
- Nicholas Haxall Johnson, Possessing Child Pornography, Baltimore MD… · Maryland
- Marc Joseph Punzalan, Producing Child Pornography, Baltimore MD, 2023 · Maryland
Key Facts
- State: Federal
- Category: Sex Crimes|Cybercrime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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