An Aroostook County man known as “Snake” who collected photos of infants being sexually molested was sentenced Monday to serve 15 years in federal prison for a charge of transporting or shipping child pornography.

Robert Kinney Jr., 41, of Blaine, was also sentenced by Judge John Woodcock Jr. in U.S. District Court in Bangor to serve 15 years of supervised release after completing his prison term and pay $6,000 restitution.

Kinney pleaded guilty to the charge last Sept. 2 as part of a deal in which two other charges of receiving and possessing child pornography were dismissed.

Kinney was first arrested at his home on Sept. 26, 2014, by Maine State Police, who were acting on a tip, Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said at the time.

Members of the State Police Computer Crimes Unit arrested Kinney at home, where he lived with his wife and two children. They searched Kinney’s electronic devices and found the photos of infants being molested, McCausland said in a news release last year.

Kinney used an email account on Aug. 20 and 21, 2014, to transmit those images out of Maine, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Ruge said in a prosecution document filed with the court.

“Using this service, under the assumed name of ‘Snake,’ the defendant caused computer communications, containing pornographic images of children engaged in sexual activity, to be transmitted by wire and otherwise in interstate and foreign commerce. In the stated two-day period, the defendant sent no fewer than 9 videos and 15 images of child pornography using this method,” Ruge wrote.

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

sdolan@pressherald.com

Twitter: @scottddolan

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