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Dark Web Child Porn Facilitator Sentenced to 27 Years
Eric Eoin Marques, a 36-year-old dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, has been sentenced to 324 months, or 27 years, in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for conspiracy to advertise child pornography.
Marques, of Dublin, Ireland, pleaded guilty on February 6, 2020, to 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 accessible only through special software.
The hosting service, which hosted hundreds of child exploitation websites, contained over 200 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.
Acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner for the District of Maryland described Marques as “one of the largest facilitators of child pornography in the world.” “This is an egregious case where one individual hosted and helped others to share millions of horrific images and videos of the abuse of children, including more than a million not previously known to law enforcement,” he said.
Assistant Director Calvin Shivers of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division stated, “Today’s sentencing of Eric Marques sends a clear message to perpetrators of this egregious crime that no matter where you are in the world, law enforcement will hold you accountable and bring you to justice.”
The case was 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. The investigation involved law enforcement agencies from over a dozen countries and was a “path-marking global investigation” that identified millions of unknown child exploitation images and videos.
Key Facts
- State: Federal
- Category: Sex Crimes|Cybercrime|Public Corruption
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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