CONCORD, NH - Acting United States Attorney John J. Farley announced that Brad Smith, 33, of Franklin, New Hampshire was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for producing child pornography. A jury previously found Smith guilty of six counts of producing child pornography after a three-day trial in April 2017.

Evidence presented at trial showed that in January of 2016, law enforcement officers in Lafayette, Louisiana received a tip that an email address associated with the defendant was distributing child pornography. Officers traced the email address to a farm in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, where the defendant was living at the time. With the defendant's consent, officers conducted an analysis of a hard drive owned by the defendant and uncovered a series of videos apparently created by the defendant. The investigation determined that the defendant had filmed himself engaging in multiple sexual acts with a three-and-half-year-old child in Loudon, New Hampshire. The defendant saved the videos to a hard drive and took them with him to Louisiana.

"Today's sentence demonstrates that this community will not tolerate the horrific acts that the defendant committed against a defenseless young child," said Acting U.S. Attorney Farley. "The United States Attorney's Office and our law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to prosecute individuals who steal the innocence of young victims. I commend the performance of the law enforcement officers and prosecutors whose work secured this very substantial sentence. I hope that the sentence provides some comfort to the victim's family."

"This case, which involved dedicated work from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) both in Louisiana and in New Hampshire, as well as local, state and other federal law enforcement, serves as a testament to what persistent, professional investigative work can achieve," said Michael Shea, Acting Special Agent-In -Charge, HSI, Boston. "HSI is proud to be part of the team that helped bring about justice in this truly disturbing case of child victimization."

The investigation in this case was led by Homeland Security Investigations in Lafayette, Louisiana and Manchester, New Hampshire, the Louisiana State Police, and the Concord, New Hampshire Police Department with the assistance of the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Seth Aframe and Georgiana Konesky.


Posted 1/20/18