Burlington Man Sentenced For Child Pornography Possession

BURLINGTON, MA — William Gates, 41, of Burlington, was sentenced in federal court Thursday for possession of child pornography. U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin sentenced Gates to 30 months in prison and five years of supervised release. According to prosecutors, Gates had thousands of images and videos of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to one count of possession in April.

According to a release by the U.S. Attorney's office, in Nov. 2017, the investigation involving Gates began when Australian authorities alerted Boston law enforcement of to findings from an investigation involving an "online personal photo site."

"Australian investigators observed a user of the site posting photographs of, and comments regarding, an approximately six-year-old boy on a school bus, who the user identified as a child on a field trip they were chaperoning," the release continues. "Australian and U.S. authorities were able to trace the account activity to IP addresses assigned to Gates’s home in Burlington and to Hanscom Air Force Base, where Gates was a civilian employee at the time."

Searches found dozens of child pornography images on his personal devices, and hundreds further in a search of his home. After Gates was indicted by a grand jury, encrypted files containing approximately 5,000 images and 440 videos of child pornography were found on his laptop. In addition to the pornography, investigators found a document titled, "How To Practice Child Love."

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.