Man Pleads Guilty to Sexual Exploitation of Minors
A Manchester man pleaded guilty today in federal court to producing visual depictions of four different minor survivors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young announces.
Chad Lawlor, 48 pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty scheduled sentencing for February 29, 2024. Lawlor was charged on October 12, 2021.
Lawlor was identified during an online undercover investigation as being the administrator of an online chat group that was devoted to the exchange of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Lawlor used the chat group to both send and receive images of CSAM with other users.
Lawlor is a registered sex offender based on a 2005 Massachusetts conviction for indecent assault and battery on a person over 14.
In April 2021, federal agents seized and examined two cell phones belonging to Lawlor, one of which contained numerous videos Lawlor created while engaged in online video chats with minors. During the chats, Lawlor directed the minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct while livestreaming the video feed. Lawlor used the screen recording function of his cell phone to create videos of the minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct from the livestream video chats. Lawlor pled guilty to charges relating to four identified minor survivors ranging in age from 8 to 13 years old.
The charging statute provides a sentence of no greater than 30 years in prison, a minimum of 5 years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000, and other monetary assessments, including restitution. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
Homeland Security Investigations led the investigation. Valuable assistance was provided by the Nashua Police Department, the Manchester Police Department, the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kasey Weiland is prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
