BANGOR — An Augusta man pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material on the anonymous chat site Omegle.
Nathaniel Gagne, 35, will face up to 20 years in prison, followed by five years to life of supervised release, in addition to a maximum $250,000 fine. A judge will sentence Gagne in the coming weeks, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine said in a news release.
Law enforcement from the Homeland Security Investigations and the Augusta Police Department began investigating possible livestreaming of child sexual abuse material in April 2023 after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children told state police it had received a tip that an Omegle user uploaded an illicit video to the site.
The user was later identified as Gagne, and the file reported by Omegle contained four images of a 3- to 4-year-old child being sexually abused. During the investigation, officials seized two cellphones and an SD card, which contained hundreds of images and videos.
Gagne admitted to sharing the material on Omegle during the execution of a search warrant on his Augusta home.
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