If you or someone you know needs resources or support related to sexual violence, contact the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault’s 24/7 hotline at 800-871-7741.
A Lewiston man will spend the next 10 years in prison for possessing thousands of images and videos of children being sexually abused.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge Jon Levy handed down the sentence to Mark A. Burns, 61, on Tuesday, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
He also was ordered to pay $58,000 in restitution.
Police raided Burns’ home last year after learning a sexually explicit image of a child under the age of 6 was shared from a computer at an IP address belonging to him, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
When police conducted the raid, Burns admitted to downloading child porn, and a search of his tablet revealed 1,103 video files and more than 12,000 images of children ranging from infants to teenagers being sexually abused.
During the Tuesday hearing, Levy said Burns had amassed an “immense” amount of images and videos of child sexual abuse and that the volume of it was a “significant aggravating factor.”
In 2016, Burns was convicted of possessing sexually explicit material involving a child under the age of 12, subjecting him to a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence, a fine up to $250,000 and up to a lifetime of supervised release, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Burns, who is a lifetime registrant on the Maine Sex Offender Registry, had pleaded guilty to the newest charges on Aug. 28, 2023.