A man from England who took an explicit photo of a 13-year-old Levant girl while meeting her for sex at a Bangor hotel was sentenced Monday to 17 years in federal prison.

Nicholas Cheese, 27, of Oxford, England, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of production of child pornography last Oct. 18 in U.S. District Court in Bangor. Cheese developed an Internet relationship with the girl starting in 2012 via online chats and emails and exchanged photographs with her, according to court records.

Cheese then arranged to meet the girl in 2013 in Bangor, where he had sexual relations with her at a hotel on June 26-29, court records say. Detectives seized his cellphone, which contained a sexually explicit image of the girl, according to an affidavit filed by a federal agent seeking the charge against Cheese.

The girl’s parents first reported to the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office on June 30 that she had been sexually assaulted by a man from England.

In interviews with the girl and later with Cheese, detectives learned that he and the girl had been communicating via the Internet for 14 months, and the girl had sent him sexually explicit videos and images, according to court records.

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

sdolan@pressherald.com

Twitter: @scottddolan


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