Concord Man Sent To Prison For Manufacturing, Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Images: Follow-Up

CONCORD, NH — A man from Concord pleaded no contest to multiple child pornography and computer services charges on Thursday.

Austin Holton, 30, of East Side Drive in Concord, offered the plea on Thursday in Merrimack County Superior Court for various charges after targeting two girls in other states and getting them to send him naked photos of themselves.

Originally, Holton was arrested on 13 charges in November 2024 and later indicted on 11 counts. As part of a plea deal, he received time for nine charges. Holton received two 10-to-20-year sentences in prison for soliciting the girls, 11 and 13. Those sentences will run concurrently, with three years of the minimum sentence shaved off upon completion of a sex offender program at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men. Those three years will be suspended for a period of five years. Holton also received two three-and-a-half-to-seven-years in prison, also concurrent, on two certain uses of computer services prohibited charges. On the five possession charges, he received five five-to-10-year sentences suspended for 10 years. Those charges will also run consecutively to the other charges.

Holton will also receive credit for 241 days of time served. All of his phones and computers will be destroyed, Prosecutor Susan Venus said.

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The case against Holton began in July 2024 after police answered a call for service, accusing him of posing as a boy and sending notes to underage girls on Snapchat.

Holton’s cellphones were found by a family member and contained pictures of girls who were nude, according to an officer who went to the home to take a report. The tipster also knew of a prior case he was involved in where he was arrested on charges about 10 years before, but the case was dismissed later.

A week before, according to court documents, detectives began working on a case involving the Marshal County Sheriff’s Office in Plymouth, Indiana, which informed Concord detectives they had received reports of a girl in their county being solicited on Snapchat and Holton was a suspect in the case.

“Austin threatened to publicly post nude images of a female juvenile that resides in Indiana if she refused to stop sending more nude images,” a detective wrote.

The girl’s mother “stepped in,” took screenshots of the conversation, deleted the girl’s Snapchat account, and contacted the sheriff’s department. The sheriff’s office was granted a search warrant of the account, which was connected to Holton, and the case was referred to Concord’s computer crimes unit.

Detectives interviewed witnesses who discovered the pictures on Holton’s phone and also shared screenshots of what appeared to be conversations between Holton and two underage girls. They also reported he owned several phones without numbers, but he would communicate with people across social media apps.

Two phones were given to detectives, but they were dead and would not turn on.

In August 2024, the NH ICAC received a CyberTip from the sheriff’s office in Indiana. Detectives also received information from Indiana concerning their investigation, including email addresses, handles, IP addresses, and interviews with a 13-year-old girl.

Concord detectives matched the IP address and other information to Holton, including text of the threats, photos, and batter between him and the girl. Police requested and received a search warrant and found “several images” of girls on two of his cellphones.

A preservation request was also made with Snapchat, which included a profile of a second girl, from either Boseman or Belgrade, Montana, in October 2024. Ten days later, the police received information about the girl’s Snapchat account. A Boseman, MT, officer was contacted, and they confirmed the information about the girl and reached out to her family regarding the incident.

During the sentencing phase, Venus said officials in both Indiana and Montana had been advised of the terms, and the state had fulfilled the victim’s rights compliance. She said Holton had never been convicted of a felony before.

Honigberg said the charges were serious and so was the sentencing, but some might ask, “Why not more?”

Venus said Holton had never been incarcerated for any length of time and his record only contained convictions for disorderly conduct and breach of bail.

“The state feels this is sufficient punishment,” she said. “Hopefully, it will make enough of an impression to deter his conduct in the future.”

Venus said she hoped the sex offender program would be a benefit to him, too.

Honigberg said he saw significant time in prison as part of the plea deal, but also an opportunity for rehabilitation in the sentencing.

Cynthia Keeley, a public defender, agreed with the state, calling the sentence a “significant time in prison,” while there was also an opportunity for rehabilitation.

Three of the Concord detectives who worked on the case were in court for the sentencing.

Prior Cases

According to superior court records, back in late September 2014, he was arrested on two charges of possessing child sexual abuse images in Concord, connected to an incident in October 2013. The case was boundover to Merrimack County Superior Court in November 2014. At the time, Holton was living on Perley Street. He was arrested again in Concord in March 2015 on two additional charges, also related to an incident that occurred in October 2013.

Then, in February 2015, Holton was arrested on four charges of possessing child sexual abuse images, three charges of computer services, and three charges of indecent exposure, sending lewd photos to a child. The charges stemmed from an incident in April 2014 in Allenstown. At the time, he was living on Young Drive in Allenstown and was arrested on Depot Street in Concord on a warrant.

In February 2015, two of the Concord charges were dismissed without prejudice. In May 2016, the other two Concord charges and all the Allenstown charges were nolle prossed.

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