Skowhegan Man Pleads Guilty to Child Exploitation Crimes

 BANGOR, Maine: A Skowhegan man pleaded guilty today in federal court to a 41-count indictment charging a series of child sexual exploitation offenses, U.S. Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced.

According to court records, between about January 2018 and October 2019, Christopher Raiche, 29, produced sexually explicit photographs of multiple children under the age of nine. He also possessed child pornography on his phone and in an online account. He used this online account to solicit and trade child pornography with others on the internet. Part of this activity included sending “links” to an online storage account containing part of his collection of child pornographic material.

Raiche faces up to 30 years in prison on each of four counts of sexual exploitation of children, and up to 20 years in prison on each of the remaining 37 counts alleging receipt, transportation, possession, solicitation and advertising of child pornography. He will also be subject to a fine of up to $250,000 for each count. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office. 

Homeland Security Investigations and the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit investigated this case. The 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. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.