United States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut
Press Release

Project Safe Childhood: BETHANY MAN SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR PRODUCING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

Kevin J. O’Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that PAUL W. NACE, 38, of Bethany, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns in New Haven to 48 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.  On September 14, 2005, NACE pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography.

According to documents filed with the Court and statements made in court, NACE utilized several screen names while visiting various Internet chat rooms such as “Connecticut Romance,” “Younger women for older men,” and “older men for younger women.”  While online, NACE met a 15-year-old girl and began a relationship with her that lasted at least until November 2004.  Their relationship became sexual in nature.  In pleading guilty, NACE admitted that, in November 2001, shortly after the girl turned 16-years-old, NACE took seven to 10 sexually explicit pictures of the girl.  NACE then emailed the images to his email account in order to preserve the images for future downloading.  NACE also admitted that he had other child pornographic images on his computer, depicting children ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New London Police Department.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Edward Chang.

U.S. Attorney O’Connor noted that this prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.

CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov