Crime & Safety

Bowie Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

A 65-year-old man from Bowie plead guilty in district court, and will be sentenced in September.

Having nearly 1,500 images and 30 videos of child pornography discovered on his computer during a raid last year, 65-year-old Bowie resident John Shutt plead guilty to child pornography charges earlier this week.

According to the plea agreement, in February of last year an online user with a specific screen name—later identified as Shutt—had been distributing images depicting children engaging in sexually explicit conduct on an illegal website where users share and download child pornography.

Shutt was served with a search warrant in September of 2010, at which time a search of his computer brought up 1,483 images and 32 videos of child pornography. While investigators searched Shutt’s computer, he admitted that he had been downloading and sharing photos and videos with others he met online for the past 15 years.

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As part of the plea, Shutt has to register as a sex offender, and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for distribution of child pornography and a maximum of 10 years in prison for possession of child pornography, followed by up to lifetime of supervised release. His court date is set for September 29 at 9:30 a.m.

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.


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