Mike LaBella, The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass. –
HAVERHILL — A Haverhill man was ordered in federal court to pay $15,000 restitution to a victim depicted in the man’s collection of child sexual abuse images.
Mark E. Rita, 44, was sentenced by U.S. District Chief Judge Mark Wolf to five years probation Tuesday after Rita entered a guilty plea in the Boston Court. The government had requested a sentence of 46 months in a federal prison, according to Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokewoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston.
Rita was also ordered to pay the $15,000 to one of the victims depicted in his child pornography collection.
DiIorio-Sterling said the restitution was requested by the lawyer of the victim’s family — something that does not always happen in such cases because
“Of the victims that are known, some choose to come forward and others simply choose not to,” DiIorio-Sterling said in explaining why in this case a representative of only one victim came forward to request restitution.
Rita’s address in Haverhill is not being released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office because it was not made public during the case, DiIorio-Sterling said.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston, had the case proceeded to trial, the government’s evidence would have proven that an undercover agent downloaded child pornography offered online by Rita, an employee of an IBM office in Littleton.
Rita’s files included pictures of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including sadistic and masochistic abuse. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Rita received and shared child pornography through peer-to-peer software, and regularly used “wiping” software to eliminate evidence of his online activity. After a search warrant was executed at his home, Rita stated that he viewed adult and child pornography during the day when his wife and children were not home. Examination of Rita’s computer revealed hundreds of images of child pornography, investigators said.
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston, announced the details of the sentencing. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Yoon of Ortiz’s Major Crimes Unit and Trial Attorney Thomas Franzinger of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, the Department of Justice created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from exploitation and abuse. The project uses federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute people who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. More information about Project Safe Childhood is available at projectsafechildhood.gov.
