37-year-old Nathaniel Gagne of Augusta has been sentenced for livestreaming images of young children being sexually abused. Gagne was given eight years, followed by 10 years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $23,000 in restitution.
Gagne was found to have distributed and possessed child sexual abuse material on the anonymous chat site Omegle.
From the Department of Justice:
According to court records, in April 2023, investigators from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Augusta Police Department began investigating the possible livestreaming of child sexual abuse material. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) had notified the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit (MSP CCU) that it had received a report through its CyberTipline that an Omegle user, later identified as Gagne, had uploaded a video file containing suspected child sexual abuse material. Omegle is an anonymous chat site where users are matched at random within topics and can communicate by text or video. The file reported by Omegle contained four images of a three- to four-year-old child being sexually abused. During the execution of a search warrant at his Augusta home, Gagne admitted to viewing child sexual abuse material and sharing it on Omegle. Investigators seized two cell phones and an SD card during the investigation, recovering hundreds of images and videos.
Omegle is an anonymous chat and video site.
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