An Easton man was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court to 10 years in federal prison on child pornography charges, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Brandon Hosford, 21, pleaded guilty on Oct. 2 to two counts each of transporting child pornography and possession of child pornography and one count of receiving child pornography.
Those charges related to images and videos Hosford downloaded between April 4, 2017, and Jan. 17, 2018, according to the prosecution version of events to which he pleaded guilty.
None of the children depicted lived in Maine.
The charges arose out of two separate investigations — one from his March 2017 posting of child pornography, and a second six months later when Hosford took part in a chat session with an undercover law enforcement agent posing as an 11-year-old girl, court documents said.
Hosford had child pornography stored on his laptop computer, cell phone and tablet computer, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
In addition to prison time, Hosford was sentenced to 10 years of supervised release. He also was ordered to pay $1,000 toward counseling for one of the victims in a well-known series of images.
Hosford faced between five and 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
He had no prior criminal history and had been held without bail since his arrest on June 13, 2018.
