Nicholas Wood, Sending Obscene Images to Minor, Maine 2018

BANGOR, Maine – A Castine man pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Bangor today to attempted possession of child sexual abuse material, transfer of obscene material to a minor and obstruction of a federal investigation.

Nicholas Wood, 26, used Snapchat to send a series of obscene images of himself to a child under the age of 16 in late July and early August 2018. Wood attempted to manipulate the victim into engaging in sex acts with him and sending him sexually explicit images.

After being informed by federal agents that they were investigating the use of his Snapchat account to send obscene images to minors, Wood deleted the application and associated data from his phone to prevent its use in the investigation.

Wood faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on both the attempted possession of child pornography charge and the transfer of obscene material to a minor charge. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for obstruction.

Wood will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children urges anyone with information about child exploitation to report it at https://report.cybertip.org/ or 1-800-843-5678.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.

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