SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Scott Barton, age 30, of Tupper Lake, New York, was sentenced today to 120 months (10 years) in prison for distributing and possessing child pornography, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
As part of his prior guilty plea, Barton admitted that in July 2020, he used a messaging application on his phone to participate in a group chat in which child pornography was being traded. As part of this group chat, Barton distributed a video of child pornography to an undercover law enforcement officer who was posing as a member of the group. Barton also admitted that in November and December 2020, he possessed hundreds of videos and images of child pornography within a cloud storage account he maintained and controlled.
United States District Judge David N. Hurd also imposed a 10-year term of supervised release, which will start after Barton is released from prison. Barton will also be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.
This case was investigated by the FBI Syracuse Mid-State Child Exploitation Task Force, comprised of FBI Special Agents and Investigators of the New York State Police, Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) and Computer Crimes Unit (CCU). The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrian LaRochelle as a part of Project Safe Childhood.
Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorney’s offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc
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