Sex Offender Convicted of Having 4,000 Child Porn Images

MONTGOMERY VILLAGE, MD — A Montgomery County man who had more than 4,000 images of child pornography on his computer and other devices has been sentenced to prison and must register as a sex offender.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office for Maryland, Shaun Valente, 30, of Montgomery Village, was sentenced Tuesday to 198 months in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for distribution of child pornography. A judge also ordered that upon his release from prison, Valente must register as a sex offender where he lives, works and attends school.

According to Valente’s plea agreement, from at least March 2013 through September 2014, Valente used his computer to distribute and to receive child pornography. On Feb. 26, 2014, Dropbox, an online storage platform, reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that images documenting the sexual abuse of minors had been uploaded to Valente’s Dropbox account.

Valente admitted that he also received and distributed images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct through email.

On Sept. 12, 2014, federal agents executed a search warrant at Valente’s residence and seized a notebook computer, cellular phone and flash drives that contained more than 4,000 images and 175 videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The child pornography included images of prepubescent children, and material that portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct, or other depictions of violence.

According to his plea agreement, Valente was convicted in Montgomery County Circuit Court in 2005 for sexual abuse of a minor and a child pornography offense, for which he was sentenced to four years in prison, with all but 18 months suspended.