Tony Cuthbertson, Child Pornography, Vermont 2019

A St. Johnsbury man has been sentenced to prison for his role in producing child pornography.

Tony Cuthbertson, 50, of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, was sentenced on December 4, 2019, in United States District Court in Rutland, Vermont, to serve 96 months in prison after his guilty plea to one count of knowingly producing with intent to distribute child pornography that is an adapted or morphed depiction of an identifiable minor.

Chief U.S. District Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford also ordered Cuthbertson to serve a ten (10) year term of supervised release, and to pay a $100 special assessment.

According to court records and proceedings, in September and October of 2017, Cuthbertson uploaded images to multiple Chatstep chat rooms. Chatstep is a website on the Internet that makes online chat rooms available to users. Cuthbertson uploaded these images knowing that they would be available to other Chatstep users.

Cuthbertson produced these images by cropping images that depicted identifiable minors such that various aspects of the images were highlighted and the child appeared to be engaged in sexually explicit conduct. These images depicted child pornography and Cuthbertson produced them with the intention of distributing them.

U.S. Attorney Christina E. Nolan commended the efforts of the Lebanon, New Hampshire Police Department, the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and Homeland Security Investigations in the investigation and prosecution of Cuthbertson.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara A. Masterson handled the prosecution of Cuthbertson. Assistant Federal Public Defender Steven L. Barth represented Cuthbertson.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-vt/pr/st-johnsbury-man-sentenced-child-pornography-offense