Richard T. Rich Jr., Child Sexual Abuse Material Possession, Maine 2022

Portland, Maine – In a disturbing case of child exploitation, 55-year-old Richard T. Rich Jr. was sentenced to 54 months in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for possessing child sexual abuse material.

The U.S. District Court in Portland handed down the sentence on an unspecified date, after Rich pleaded guilty on October 24, 2022.

According to court records, the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit relayed to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in May 2022 that it was investigating Rich for using the website Quora to solicit child sexual abuse material. Following this, a Maine State Police detective and Rich’s Maine State Probation Officer visited the defendant’s Portland home and recovered numerous electronic devices that Rich was not authorized to possess.

A subsequent analysis of those devices by HSI revealed child sexual abuse material. Rich, a registered sex offender with prior convictions in New Jersey for aggravated sexual assault, possessing/viewing sexually explicit material, and other offenses, will serve his sentence followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

During sentencing, U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen noted that while the defendant himself had not sexually abused the children depicted in the images, the continuing sexual abuse of the children “is fueled by your desire to see these images.”

The Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case. If you have any information related to this case, you can contact the authorities directly.

To report an incident involving the possession, distribution, receipt, or production of child pornography, please contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at https://report.cybertip.org/ or 1-800-843-5678. In Maine, you can also reach out to the free, private 24-hour statewide sexual assault helpline at 1-800-871-7741.

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