Child Porn Charges Lead To Prison Sentence For Harwood Man

HARWOOD, MD — A 62-year-old Harwood man has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for the transportation and possession of child pornography and illegal possession of firearms by a previously convicted felon.

U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow also ordered that John Patrick Dillon pay restitution of $1,000 to one of the child victims. Dillon must register as a sex offender wherever he resides, wherever he works and wherever he may be a student after being released from prison. Dillon has been detained since his arrest on May 21, 2018.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Acting Special Agent in Charge Cardell T. Morant of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; and Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess.

According to the agreed-upon statement of facts, in 1998, Dillon was convicted in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County for sexual abuse of a minor and was sentenced to serve seven years in prison. Dillon has been a registered sex offender since his release from state prison.

In 2015, Dillon began searching the internet for child pornography and created a number of videos of the searches he ran and the child pornography he found and viewed. He saved the material to DVDs. Dillon also uploaded images of child pornography to search for other images of child pornography online, which led to a cybertip being sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC then sent the cybertip to the Maryland State Police.

As a result of the investigation, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Dillon’s residence on April 26, 2018. Law enforcement seized digital storage media, a desktop computer and cellular phone. Officers also located and seized a .303-caliber rifle, two 12-gauge shotguns, a pistol and 63 rounds of ammunition. Because of his previous conviction, Dillon was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition.

A forensic examination of the electronic items seized led to the discovery of more than 1,700 images and 320 videos of child pornography, including images documenting the sexual abuse of prepubescent minors and sadistic, masochistic and other depictions of violence.