A Berwick man who spent years amassing a collection of more than 500 pornographic videos and images of children was arrested on a federal warrant Wednesday charging him with felony possession.

Peter Anderson, whose age is not listed in court records, was taken into custody of the U.S. Marshals Service in the morning after a warrant was issued last week by Magistrate Judge John Rich III charging him with possession of child pornography, according to records in U.S. District Court in Portland that were unsealed after Anderson’s arrest.

Anderson appeared before Rich in court on Wednesday afternoon and was allowed to go free on a $50,000 unsecured bond while the case is pending against him.

If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of as much as $250,000.

Berwick police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant at Anderson’s home at 5 Shadow Lane in Berwick on April 21, and he admitted downloading the illegal videos and images from the Internet for “the past few years,” according to an affidavit filed with the court by FBI Special Agent Thomas MacDonald.

Authorities did not arrest Anderson at his house that day but seized electronic records of 105 child pornography videos and 430 child pornography images. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children confirmed that many of those files were made of children being sexually abused from locations in the United States and around the world, though not in Maine, the affidavit states.

Scott Dolan can be reached at 791-6304 or at:

sdolan@pressherald.com

Twitter: @scottddolan


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