BANGOR, Maine — A Sedgwick man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of child pornography during a hearing Monday before Judge John Woodcock Jr. in U.S. District Court.
John Tapley, 58, also was ordered to undergo 10 years of supervised release upon completion of his prison term. Tapley pleaded guilty to the charge on Dec. 29, 2014.
Court records and proceedings showed that in January 2013, Tapley brought his laptop computer to a computer repair shop for service, U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II said in a news release.
A service technician found sexually suggestive images of prepubescent girls on the computer and reported it to the police, Delahanty said. Law enforcement agents obtained a search warrant for the computer and found images and videos of child pornography, he said.
Tapley faced an enhanced sentence because of two prior Maine Superior Court convictions for unlawful sexual contact with minors, Delahanty said.
The investigation that led to Tapley’s conviction was conducted by the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit and the Ellsworth Police Department.