PORTLAND, Maine: A Biddeford man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Portland for sexually exploiting a minor and transporting child pornography, U.S. Attorney Darcie N. McElwee announced.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen sentenced Jason Proulx, 44, to 40 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release. Proulx pleaded guilty on September 27, 2021.
According to court records, in 2016 or 2017, Proulx recorded sexually explicit videos of a girl who was seven or eight years old at the time. In July 2019, Proulx uploaded the videos to a French website. Investigators with Homeland Security Investigations executed a search warrant at a residence in Biddeford in June 2020. Proulx was present and agreed to speak with investigators. After initially denying any involvement with pornography, he eventually admitted that he had sexually abused the girl and recorded videos of the abuse in a room in the residence.
In discussing the reasons for her sentence, Judge Torresen noted that the videos Proulx created and shared would remain on the internet forever. As a result, she said, the victim and her family would have a “cloud over their heads to the end of their days.” Judge Torresen also noted that Proulx’s crimes were committed against the most vulnerable victims in society.
Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case with assistance from the Biddeford Police Department.
Project Safe Childhood: This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 www.justice.gov/psc.
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