HOULTON, Maine — A convicted sex offender was back behind bars Friday afternoon after police executed a search warrant at his home and found evidence of child pornography.
Gary E. Schillinger, 60, was charged with one count of dissemination of sexually explicit material, which is a Class A (felony) offense, according to Houlton Police Chief Butch Asselin.
A month long investigation on Schillinger began when he made statements to police back on Feb. 4. Asselin did not elaborate on what those statements were. Police also received a request to do a welfare check on Schillinger.
“Through his own initiative, Det. Stewart Kennedy began a search of Mr. Schillinger on Facebook,” Asselin said. “Images were posted on Mr. Schillinger’s Facebook page, which prompted Det. Kennedy to contact the National Center of Missing Children, who assisted HPD in the investigation.”
As a result of the information provided by the National Center of Missing Children, it was determined that Schillinger was disseminating child pornography using his email accounts. The photographs attached to the email allegedly contained explicit pictures of children under the age of 12.
“There is no evidence that any of the images were of children from the greater Houlton area,” the chief said.
A search warrant was obtained by Det. Kennedy on Wednesday and executed at 10 a.m. Friday. The search was conducted by members of the Houlton Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations and Officer Bill Scull of the Presque Isle Police Department.
Schillinger was placed under arrest without incident and transported to the Houlton Police Department. He was still at the Aroostook County Jail on Monday.
Police seized computers, journals and thumb drives during the search.
Schillinger has a history of sex crimes. He was convicted of public indecency on May 14, 1985 and three counts of gross sexual misconduct on June 9, 1986.
On Dec. 3, 1990, Schillinger had his probation revoked for failing to complete sex offender counseling. He is a lifetime registrant on the Maine Sex Offender Registry.
