Man Pleads Guilty To Federal Child Porn Charges in Albany

Once again we see an issue of a grown man taking advantage of children while using social media and other Internet sources. Fortunately, he did not get away with it this time.

Just about a year ago a local man from Ulster County used the Internet and social media to possess and distribute disgusting images of kids, but he was unable to get away with it. The FBI investigated the incidents and U.S. Attorney Joshua Rosenthal went on to prosecute the cases.

According to MidHudson News, today that man, 26-year old Nicholas Rockwell, stood in federal court in Albany and pleaded guilty to distributing, receiving, and possessing child pornography. He admitted that on October 11, 2019, and on December 19, 2019, he used electronic devices to commit his crimes. He used social media and his iPhone to receive pornographic images of children.

In October of last year, he admittedly used social media to send child pornography as well as receiving it. He continued on into December of last year where he had two iCloud accounts and stored at least 281 images of children. He also had 1,848 videos of children being exploited sexually.

Rockwell is scheduled to be sentenced in April 2021. He is potentially looking at 20-years behind bars on each count of child pornography that he pled guilty to.

We’ve all heard for decades that we must be diligent in watching our children at all times. That means in-person as well as online. We keep seeing cases of children being exploited sexually by online predators. It’s good that these predators are being caught and prosecuted, but do we really know the long term consequences that the victims must endure?

CAPITAL REGION MUGSHOTS