Robert Eldred, Child Pornography, Vermont 2017

A Barre, Vermont man was sentenced to six months in federal prison for possession of child pornography, according to a statement from the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont.

Robert Eldred, 57, was sentenced on October 16, 2017 in United States District Court in Rutland, Vermont, to serve six months in federal prison after his guilty plea to one count of possession of child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford also ordered Eldred to serve a five-year period of supervised release and to pay a $100 special assessment.

According to court records and proceedings, in February 2015, the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized the computer server that hosted a website dedicated to the sharing and trading of, and communication among offenders about, child pornography. The FBI did not shut down the website for approximately 13 days.

During that time, when an individual accessed the website, a Network Investigative Technique (NIT) was deployed to allow law enforcement to identify the Internet Protocol address of the user of the computer that accessed the website. Through further investigation, the FBI determined that a computer used by Eldred accessed the website for approximately two hours on March 4, 2015.

The FBI executed a warrant to search Eldred’s residence for evidence of child pornography. During the search, Eldred’s computer was seized. During a forensic examination of the computer, the FBI found approximately 22 images of child pornography.