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Acton Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

A 59-year-old Acton man pled guilty yesterday to receiving and possessing child pornography.

Chris Allen Oake, 59, of Acton, was convicted in federal court for possession of child pornography, transportation of child pornography and two counts of receipt of child pornography, officials said. Oake pled guilty before U.S. District Judge, Nathaniel M. Gorton, on Thursday, Feb. 15.

Oake will be sentenced on May 22 and is facing 20 years in prison for each count of transporting child pornography, along with a lifetime supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

According to a statement from U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, “had the case proceeded to trial, evidence would have proven that Oake was an active member of a private, members-only website that was largely dedicated to child pornography and child erotica. Thousands of images of child pornography and child erotica were found in well-organized folders on computer media seized from Oake.”

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The investigative team was a collaborative effort between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security, Child Exploitation & Obscenity Section’s High Technology Investigative Unit, the Massachusetts State Police and the Acton Police Dept.

“The charges against Oake were a result of ‘Operation Nest Egg,’ an ongoing and joint investigation led by the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service," according to the report. "'Operation Nest Egg' launched in Feb. 2008, targeted approximately 500 individuals located throughout the world for their involvement in an online group dedicated to trading images of child pornography."

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Similar cases:

  • In August 2011, Brad Warner, 33, of Acton, was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris to 151 months in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release on child pornography charges, after pleading guilty on charges of possession of child pornography.
  • In May 2011, Stephen DiTullio, 57, of Littleton, former owner of the Gym Nest, Acton, was found guilty in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn on charges of perjury in connection with his testimony in the case involving Steven Infante, a gymnastics coach, who raped and assaulted a former gymnast.

*All information was provided by a press release from U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, District of Massachusetts.

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