BOSTON – A Chicopee man was sentenced today in federal court
in Springfield for receiving child pornography.
Victor Stepus, 51, was sentenced by U.S. District Court
Judge Mark G. Mastroianni to seven years in prison and 10 years of supervised
release. In November 2019, Stepus pleaded guilty to three counts of receipt of
child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Stepus has
been in custody since his arrest in August 2015.
The investigation that led to the charges against Stepus
began with the discovery of Playpen, a secret child pornography bulletin board
and website dedicated to the advertisement and distribution of child
pornography and the discussion of matters involving the sexual abuse of
children. Playpen existed on the “dark web,” and enabled allowed users, on an
anonymous basis, to access the site. When investigators obtained logs from the
Playpen site, they found that Stepus had been an active user during a six-month
period during 2014 and 2015.
A search of Stepus’s residence resulted in the seizure of a
personal computer that contained over 8,000 images and 33 videos of child
pornography. These included images depicting the sexual abuse, including
bondage, of girls as young as eight years old. Stepus admitted that for the
past several years he used his home computer to access and download child
pornography two to three times per week.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Joseph R. Bonavolonta,
Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field
Division; and Chicopee Police Chief William R. Jebb made the announcement
today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex J. Grant of Lelling’s Springfield Branch
Office is prosecuting the case.
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