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Warwick Man Sentenced to 23 Years on Child Porn Charge

US DOJWarwick, RI – A city man who pled guilty to producing and distributing pornographic images and videos of a 7-year-old girl was sentenced to 23 years and 10 months in federal prison Monday.

Sean Keener, 27, of Warwick, was sentenced to 286 months in federal prison for exploiting a 7-year-old child by producing and distributing pornographic images and videos of the child.

At sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. also ordered Keener to serve lifetime supervised release upon completion of his prison term. Keener pleaded guilty on March 24, 2014, to an indictment charging him with one count each of production, possession and distribution of child pornography.

No plea agreement was filed in the case.

Police were alerted to the crime when some of the videos and images were posted on a Russian file-sharing web site, according to a release from United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha.

In June 2013, HSI agents in Boston seized digital storage drives containing photographs depicting child pornography, including sexually explicit photographs of a 7-year-old girl from Rhode Island, according to Neronha’s office.

HSI agents also discovered an email address later linked to Sean Keener and to a folder he created on a Russian file-sharing website containing several pictures of the same child.  With the assistance of the Warwick Police Department, both Keener and the girl in the photographs were identified as Rhode Islanders.

A court-authorized search by HSI agents and Warwick Police of a home where Keener was staying resulted in the seizure of two computers and two cell phones belonging to Keener containing more than 5,100 images and 586 videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

“There are some cases that leave one almost speechless.  This is just such a case,” Nehronha wrote Monday. “Today’s long prison sentence is entirely deserved, yet no jail sentence, however long, can restore what this child has lost.”

 

Rob Borkowski
Author: Rob Borkowski

Rob has worked as reporter and editor for several publications, including The Kent County Daily Times and Coventry Courier, before working for Gatehouse in MA then moving home with Patch Media. Now he's publisher and editor of WarwickPost.com. Contact him at [email protected] with tips, press releases, advertising inquiries, and concerns.

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