Man Sentenced For Child Sexual Abuse Material Possession: Feds

GROTON, CT — A man formerly stationed at the New London Naval Submarine Base in Groton was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Portland, ME on Wednesday for possessing child sexual abuse materials, according to federal prosecutors. Zakary Williams, 25, was sentenced to 5 years, 10 months in prison and 5 years of supervised release.

The court also ordered Williams to pay $47,000 in restitution to the victims depicted in some of the images and videos he possessed.

Williams pleaded guilty to the charges May 18.

According to prosecutors, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) received information from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police regarding Kik Messenger users believed to be in the U.S. who were uploading child pornography.

HSI agents traced one of the uploaded images back to an IP address associated with military housing on the New London Naval Submarine Base in Groton, according to prosecutors. HSI determined that Williams was the source of that image.

In December 2020, agents interviewed Williams at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, ME where he was then stationed. Williams admitted sharing and viewing child pornography and consented to a search of his cell phone, according to prosecutors.

The investigation revealed that Williams was storing hundreds of images and videos in a cloud-based storage account that depicted the sexual abuse of children. Many of the victims depicted were under the age of 12, and some were infants or toddlers.

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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.