US police nail child porn peddler

By Clement James

May 16 2007 10:12AM

A web technician from Boston has admitted to the operation of a number of child pornography websites.

Aaron Campbell Brown pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to sell, transport, reproduce, distribute and receive child pornography, and one count of money laundering.

He entered the plea today before US District Court Judge Samuel Wilson at the federal court in Roanoke, Virginia.

Brown pleaded guilty to two counts from a superseding indictment returned in March 2007.

The remaining counts, including allegations of conspiracy to produce and advertise child pornography, conspiracy to produce child pornography for importation into the US, transportation, receipt, distribution and sale of child pornography, and other money laundering counts, were dismissed.

Brown admitted that the conspiracy spanned more than five years and involved a number of commercial child pornography websites created, developed, hosted and operated by co-conspirators Gregory John Mitchel, Timothy Ryan Richards and a cooperating witness.

The sites contained child pornography and offered memberships for a subscription fee.

Brown provided services and other support, including website hosting, technical assistance and customer payment processing, through his Neova.net company.

"One of the highest priorities of the US Attorney's Office is to protect our children from predators," said US Attorney John Brownlee.

"Brown was involved not only in exploiting these children, but in making money from this horrible crime. We hope this case sends a message that we will aggressively pursue anyone who is involved in the exploitation of our children. "

Brown faces a sentence of between 108 and 135 months in prison, a fine of US$250,000 (A$300,000), and a period of supervised release up to the remainder of his life.

Mitchel was sentenced to 150 years in prison by the US District Court for the Western District of Virginia in 2006 for his participation in child pornography offences.

Also in 2006, Richards was convicted on 10 counts of child pornography offences in the Middle District of Tennessee and faces a minimum of 15 years in prison.