Warwick Man Gets 42 Months for Dark Web Child Porn Ring

A Warwick man who plunged into the darkest corners of the internet to feed his appetite for child pornography has been sentenced to 42 months in federal prison. Stephen P. Langlois, Jr., 34, used cryptocurrency to hide his tracks while downloading over 100 videos of abused children from an overseas site accessible only on the dark web, federal prosecutors revealed.

Beginning in May 2017, Langlois paid in bitcoin to access a hidden child exploitation website, investigators said. He wasn’t just browsing—he was subscribing, downloading, and hoarding. Among the files were videos depicting sadistic acts involving children engaged in sexual activity. The evidence painted a pattern of deliberate, calculated consumption of the most vile material imaginable.

Langlois didn’t store the files openly. Instead, he disguised them—burying the videos inside a music folder on his laptop in a futile attempt to evade justice. But digital forensics don’t lie. Investigators with Homeland Security Investigations and the Rhode Island State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force uncovered the cache during a coordinated probe that followed the digital money trail.

On January 2, 2019, Langlois pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Providence to one count of possession of child pornography. Today, Chief Judge William E. Smith handed down the sentence: 42 months behind bars, followed by a decade of supervised release. The court also ordered Langlois to pay a $5,000 mandatory assessment under the Justice for Victims Trafficking Act—a small price compared to the lifelong trauma endured by his victims.

The case was led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra R. Hebert and investigated by a joint task force including Homeland Security Investigations, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and the Rhode Island State Police. U.S. Attorney Aaron L. Weisman, HSI Special Agent in Charge Peter C. Fitzhugh, IRS CI Special Agent in Charge Kristina O’Connell, and Colonel James M. Manni of the State Police all confirmed the outcome.

Langlois is the latest in a growing number of predators caught using cryptocurrency to exploit children on the dark web. His arrest is a stark reminder: anonymity is an illusion. The feds are watching. And they’re closing in.