SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Michael Mayhew, age 56, of Rome, New York, was sentenced today to serve 200 months in federal prison for receiving and possessing child pornography, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman, Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and New York State Police (NYSP) Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen.
As part of his guilty plea, Mayhew admitted that in December of 2018 he took photographs of a six-year-old child naked in a bathroom using a cellular telephone, including images that captured the child’s genitals. Mayhew also admitted that in 1993 and 1994 he secretly video recorded three children under the age of 12 in his home, again capturing videos of them naked and in two instances with their genitals visible. He further admitted that from 2010 to 2015 he downloaded from the internet numerous graphic video files of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Finally, Mayhew admitted that in March of 2019 he possessed 184 images of child pornography on an electronic storage device in his home, and he also possessed on two separate VHS tapes the sexually explicit videos he took in 1993 and 1994.
Chief United States District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby also imposed a 30 year term of supervised release, which will start after Mayhew is released from prison, and ordered Mayhew to pay a $400 special assessment, a $30,000 fine, an additional special assessment of $5,000 and a Child Pornography assessment of $17,000. Mayhew will also be required to register as a sex offender.
This case was investigated by the FBI, Oneida County Sherriff’s Office, Rome Police Department, Oneida County District Attorney’s Office, Oneida County Child Advocacy Center, New York State Police, and the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey J. L. Brown as a part of Project Safe Childhood.
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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov