Middletown Man Sentenced on Child Porn Charge in ‘Operation Pacifier’: Feds

MIDDLETOWN, CT — A Middletown man was sentenced to 18 months in jail for possessing child pornography, according to authorities.

Paul Hubbard, 27, was also sentenced to five years of supervised release following the prison term, U.S. States Attorney Deirdre M. Daly announced on Thursday.

Authorities found approximately 354 videos and 6,851 images of child pornography on computers that were seized from Hubbard’s home as part of “Operation Pacifier” in 2015, according to officials.

“Operation Pacifier” is an FBI investigation into Playpen, a global online forum through which registered users advertised, distributed and accessed child pornography.

On February 20, 2015, the FBI seized a computer server hosting Playpen from a webhosting facility in North Carolina. Pursuant to a federal court order in the Eastern District of Virginia, the website operated under FBI supervision February 20 to March 4, 2015, according to Daly. During that time, the FBI collected information to identify members of Playpen.

“Playpen had more than 150,000 members who created and viewed tens of thousands of postings related to child pornography,” Daly wrote in a press release. “Images and videos shared through the site were highly categorized according to victim age and gender, as well as the type of sexual activity. The site also included discussion forums that included tips for grooming victims and avoiding detection.”

The FBI determined that a user name connected to an IP address operating at Hubbard’s Middletown residence had accessed Playpen for approximately 13 hours during the monitoring period.

On July 16, 2015, the FBI searched Hubbard’s residence and seized two laptop computers and two external hard drives.

“Forensic analysis of the computers and hard drives revealed approximately 354 videos and 6,851 images of child pornography, including images and videos of prepubescent minors and images and videos that portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct,” Daly wrote in the press release.

Hubbard was arrested on July 16, 2015 and pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography this past July.

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation, according to Daly. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit here.

To report cases of child exploitation, visit here.

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