A federal jury in North Carolina has convicted a Raleigh man of possessing more than 300 images of child sexual abuse material on his work laptop.
Joseph Matthew Dobbs, 45, was found guilty of the crime, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in July.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Dobbs was working from home as an IT support engineer for a multinational technology company when his supervisor remotely observed him watching content on his work-issued laptop that appeared to be child sexual abuse material. The company terminated Dobbs’s employment and forwarded screenshots taken by the supervisor to law enforcement for investigation.
The Raleigh Police Department executed a search at Dobbs’s apartment and seized the company laptop. A review of the laptop and the company’s back-up servers revealed that Dobbs’s laptop contained over 300 image files of child sexual abuse material, including the sexual abuse of infants and toddlers and depictions of bondage.
In 2006, Dobbs was also convicted of having carnal knowledge of a child, using a computer to solicit a minor (three counts), possession of child sexual abuse material (ten counts), and manufacturing sexually explicit material in Virginia. He spent seven years in prison and was still on probation for those offenses at the time of this incident.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Raleigh Police Department, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lori Warlick and Logan Liles. U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle accepted the verdict.
Key Facts
- State: North Carolina
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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