Former Navy Mechanic Pleads Guilty To Child Pornography Charges

GROTON, CT — A former U.S. Navy mechanic has pleaded guilty to charges related to sexual abuse of seven young girls in three states, according to a statement from prosecutors. Randall Tilton, 31, pleaded guilty to seven counts of production of child pornography.

Tilton was arrested Nov. 1, 2019, on state sexual assault charges after he admitted in an interview with Town of Groton police that he had sexually assaulted several minor victims, and that he had recorded some of the sexual assaults, according to prosecutors.

Investigators said that examination of a laptop, tablet, cellphone and two flash drives seized from Tilton revealed that beginning in 2014, Tilton sexually assaulted seven girls who were between the ages of 4 months and 8 years old. Tilton photographed and video recorded many of these sexual assaults, prosecutors said in a statement. Some of the images depict a minor victim bound and restrained while Tilton sexually assaulted her.

Tilton distributed some of the images and videos of these sexual assaults on the dark web through the Tor network.

Tilton’s electronic devices also included thousands of images and videos of the sexual abuse of other minors, including sadomasochistic images of minors in bondage, sexual assaults on infants, and sexual acts on the corpse of a minor.

The investigation revealed that Tilton sexually assaulted children in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and California.

The charges Tilton pleaded guilty to carry a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 15 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years on each count.

At sentencing, scheduled for March 1, 2021, the government will argue for a sentence of 210 years of imprisonment.

Tilton has been detained since his arrest.

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

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