PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A Scituate man who admitted to sharing sexually explicit images of prepubescent girls with individuals he believed to be the parents of a 13-year-old girl pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography, announced Acting United States Attorney Richard B. Myrus.
David C. Duquette, 54, admitted to the court that in February 2019, during a series of online communications, he sent a person he believed to be the father of the girl at least two images of child pornography. The person Duquette was communicating with was, in fact, an undercover Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent.
According to court documents, the agent, who posed as both the mother and the father of the 13-year-old girl, engaged in a series of online exchanges with Duquette. In those exchanges, Duquette admitted to them that he had, in the past, communicated online with young teenage girls and that some of them shared sexually explicit images with him. When the agent, posing as the father of the 13-year-old girl suggested he too shared an interest in viewing child pornography, Duquette sent him two sexually explicit images depicting prepubescent girls.
At the time of his arrest on April 17, 2019, HSI agents discovered approximately 1,400 images of child pornography on a cellphone belonging to Duquette.
Appearing on Monday before U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Duquette pleaded guilty to charges of possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 22, 2022.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Terrence P. Donnelly.
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