Thursday, September 03, 2020

Saratoga County Man Charged with Distribution of Child Pornography

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Cameron Hennelly, age 30, currently of Halfmoon, New York and formerly of Amsterdam, New York, appeared in court yesterday on a charge of distributing child pornography.

The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon and Thomas F. Relford, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

On August 28, 2020, Hennelly was charged by a criminal complaint with distributing child pornography. Hennelly appeared yesterday before United States Magistrate Judge Christian F. Hummel for a detention hearing and was ordered detained pending further proceedings. The complaint alleges that Hennelly used the Kik phone messaging application to distribute a video containing child pornography. The charges in the complaint are merely accusations.  The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. 

If convicted, Hennelly faces at least 5 and up to 20 years in prison, a mandatory term of supervised release of at least 5 years and up to life, mandatory registration as a sex offender, and a maximum fine of $250,000. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors. 

This case is being investigated by the FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alicia Giglio Suarez. 

This case is prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

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