Staff reports 9:52 a.m.
Friday, June 4, 2021 9:52 am

CONCORD - A of Somersworth man was sentenced to 90 months in federal prison for possessing and distributing child pornography, the U.S. Attorneys Office announced today.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on April 26, 2017, the New Hampshire State Police received three tips previously submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by the online communications application Skype. The tips reported that on three separate occasions on March 21, 2017, the same user account uploaded files to Skype that were identified as child sexual abuse images. NHSP investigators later determined that the Skype account was associated with Joseph Gaudreau, 25.

NHSP investigators spoke with Gaudreau at his residence in Somersworth on Aug. 30, 2017. In a voluntary interview, Gaudreau admitted to possessing child pornography and sharing it with others on the internet using multiple applications, including Skype. He told law enforcement that he generally stored images in his Dropbox account, which he could access from any internet-capable device.

Law enforcement officers next obtained a search warrant for the contents of any Dropbox account associated with the username or e-mail that Gaudreau voluntarily provided them during the interview. The materials received from Dropbox included numerous video files and still images of child pornography.

Gaudreau previously pleaded guilty on Jan. 7. In addition to the prison sentence, Gaudreau will be under supervised release for seven years once he is released.