VIP Member of Child Porn Site Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison

ARNOLD, MD — An Anne Arundel County man who was a VIP member of an online site that advertised and distributed child pornography has been sentenced to five years in federal prison. A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Robert P. Kramer, 51, of Arnold, to the prison term, followed by five years of supervised release, for distribution of child pornography. When he is released from prison, Kramer must register as a sex offender.

According to his plea agreement and other court documents, Kramer was a VIP member of “The Website,” an online community dedicated to sharing child pornography. In order to join and access the site, Kramer had to install specialized computer software designed to mask the identity and location of the user, according to the Department of Justice.

Kramer admitted that he had over 600 videos and images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, authorities said.

Website members were required to contribute postings to the site at least once every 30 days. The posts had to depict prepubescent children, from infancy to about 13 years old, or help other users. VIP members of the website, such as Kramer, were granted access to a “private” area of the child pornography forum, that was said to contain material that was “rare” and “new,” prosecutors said.

Kramer admitted that between April 29, 2013, and December 9, 2014, he made a total of 69 postings to the porn site and that many of those posts shared images of prepubescent girls engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

A search warrant executed at Kramer’s home on June 16, 2015, turned up digital devices and storage media capable of storing over 3TB of data.