Canton Man Sentenced to More than 17 Years for Producing Child Pornography

Deirdre M. Daly, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced Wednesday that Michael Crawford, 36, of Canton, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to 17 years, five months in prison, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release, for producing child pornography.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office aggressively prosecutes child exploitation crimes, and this lengthy prison sentence should send a loud and clear message that the penalties associated with these crimes are appropriately severe,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Daly.  “I commend Homeland Security Investigations, the Connecticut State Police and the Canton Police Department for investigating this matter and protecting children from future harm by this defendant.”

According to court documents and statements made in court, in July 2012, law enforcement officers discovered that an individual from Connecticut had been posting photographs of children on a Russian file-sharing website.  On July 5, 2012, state officers executed a state search warrant at Crawford's home on Old Canton Road. 

On that date, Crawford admitted that he posted images to the Russian website, that he had taken photographs of a three-year-old minor victim and posted them on the site, and that he had exchanged photographs of the minor victim in order to receive better photos from others in trade, according to a Wednesday release from the U.S. Attorney's office. 

A subsequent search of Crawford's email account revealed seven sexually explicit photographs of the minor victim, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Crawford had e-mailed four of the images to other individuals.In addition to the pictures of the minor victim that he had taken, Crawford’s email account contained approximately 777 images and 24 videos of child pornography. 

Crawford has been detained since a federal arrest on Jan. 9, 2013 and  On May 1, 2013, he pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography, according to the release. 

This matter was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the Connecticut State Police and the Canton Police Department.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Sarala V. Nagala and Anastasia E. King.

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. 

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.