These are some recent child pornography cases handled in the tri-county area:

July 2007

Name: Richard Beebe

Age at sentencing: 69

Town: Waterford

Charge: Possessing child pornography (1 count)

Prosecuted by: The local District Attorney’s Office.

Sentence: Serve two months of a one-year sentence, plus two years probation. No owning a computer, using the Internet or having unsupervised contact with children under 16. Must undergo psychological counseling and must register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Background: Beebe, a former volunteer at the Waterford Memorial Elementary School, traded instant messages with an FBI investigator who posed as a single mother of two young children. During these online conversations, Beebe said he got “very excited” from working around children and had touched his granddaughter’s buttocks when her mother was not looking. He denied having child pornography on his computer when asked during the conversations.

Beebe also sent a non-explicit picture of a 9-year-old girl to the investigator, describing her as one of his favorite girls at the school where he volunteered. The girl was later identified as a student at the Waterford school.

May 2006

Name: Travis Farmer

Age at sentencing: 25

Town: Farmington

Charge: Possessing child pornography (1 count)

Prosecuted by: The U.S. Attorney’s Office

Sentence: Three years and five months in prison.

Background: U.S. Customs agents visited Farmer’s home on Nov. 21, 2003, after a tip from Pennsylvania agents that someone there was uploading illegal images of children. Farmer turned over two computers.

One month later, customs agents returned and seized a wide assortment of computers and digital storage media, including two hard drives hidden in Farmer’s garage. More than 100 sexually explicit images of children were found on the computers’ hard drives, U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby said at the time.

Farmer pleaded guilty.

August 2005

Name: Barry Hathaway

Age at sentencing: Not available

Town: Wilton

Charge: Possessing child pornography (1 count)

Prosecuted by: The U.S. Attorney’s Office

Sentence: Three years and one month in prison, plus three years’ probation. No computer use and no association with anyone under 16 without approval from his parole officer. Must register as a sex offender.

Background: On Nov. 20, 2002, armed with a search warrant, Knox County Sheriff’s deputies searched Hathaway’s home and seized two computers and 62 CDs. One computer contained six images of child pornography and approximately 40 banners for Web sites that appeared to feature child pornography. One of the 62 CDs contained nearly 600 images of child pornography.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified at least 16 children in the images.

After the search, Hathaway told detectives that he had a problem and that the pornography and paraphernalia found during the search were his.

September 2004

Name: Robert O. Caron

Age at sentencing: 59

Town: Sabattus

Charge: Possessing child pornography (1 count)

Prosecuted by: The U.S. Attorney’s Office

Sentence: Two years in prison, plus three years probation and a $5,000 fine.

Background: A former Sabattus Elementary School teacher, Caron was found guilty of keeping lewd pictures of kids on his home computer.

Prosecutors said they were tipped off to Caron’s possession of child porn in January 2003 after he took his computer to a Lewiston repair shop and a technician noticed photographs of naked children on the hard drive. Police seized Caron’s computer and 27 disks with images of children engaged in sex acts.

Caron is now listed on Maine’s sex offender registry.

June 2003

Name: Roger Martin

Age at sentencing: 47

Town: Fairfield

Charge: Possessing child pornography (1 count)

Prosecuted by: The local District Attorney’s Office.

Sentence: 364 days, all suspended. One year probation, a $1,000 fine and restrictions on unsupervised contact with children. Must undergo sex-abuse counseling.

Background: Martin, a retired Waterville police officer, was arrested after he exchanged explicit e-mails with a New Hampshire police officer posing as a 14-year-old boy in an Internet chat room. When they searched Martin’s computer, police found 96 downloaded Internet photos of boys.

Martin pleaded guilty.

Martin had also been charged with disseminating pornographic materials. That charge was dismissed under the plea agreement.

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