PORTLAND – A Gray man who was arrested on child pornography charges after a computer repair technician discovered pornographic images on his hard drive has been sentenced to 33 months in prison.
Darin Doe, 26, became the first person to be sentenced on federal child pornography charges in Maine since a Supreme Court ruling in April that weakened a federal child pornography law.
A judge Monday also imposed a $3,600 fine on Doe for receiving child pornography. Once he completes the prison term, he will serve three years of probation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Toby Dilworth said.
Doe was caught after dropping off his computer at a repair shop in Waterville, where he grew up. A technician who was shocked by the images contacted the Waterville Police Department, and the computer was seized.
The computer contained images of children 3 to 7 years old engaged in sex acts, according to an examiner from the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force.
The Supreme Court ruling on child pornography said the government went too far in defining child porn to include not only minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct but also what “appears to be” minors. That included computer-generated images of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
In Doe’s case, investigators were able to determine the identity of two children in one of the photos, which was taken in the United Kingdom, so the government was able to proceed, Dilworth said.
“The fact that we were able to get a conviction against Darin Doe shows that we can still make cases after [the Supreme Court ruling]. It’s going to be more difficult but it’s still possible,” Dilworth said.
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