Carroll County Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Federal Prison for Production and Receipt of Child Pornography

Sexually Exploited a Young Girl to Produce Child Pornography

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Shon Brian Beck, age 56, of Eldersburg, Maryland, yesterday to 15 years in federal prison, followed by 25 years of supervised release, for the production and receipt of child pornography. 

The sentence was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner; Acting Special Agent in Charge Rachel Byrd of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Colonel Woodrow W. Jones III, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.

According to his guilty plea, in September 2001, Beck and his family traveled to Bethany Beach, Delaware, where they shared a condominium with two other families, including the victim’s family.  Jane Doe, the victim, was six years old at the time.  Beck admitted that he sneaked into the victim’s room and used a digital camera to produce eleven sexually explicit images of the victim.

As detailed in the plea agreement, in 2018, another victim reported that Beck had sexually abused her.  The investigation led to the execution of a search warrant at Beck’s residence on March 22, 2019.  Law enforcement seized Beck’s computer equipment and digital cameras.  Beck’s digital devices were forensically examined.  Investigators found the eleven sexually explicit images of Jane Doe, as well as more than 450 images and videos documenting the sexual abuse of minor victims, including prepubescent minors, many of which Beck had downloaded from the Internet. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "Resources" tab on the left of the page.         

Acting United States Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner commended the FBI and Maryland State Police for their work in the investigation and thanked the Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office for its assistance.  Mr. Lenzner thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Budlow, who prosecuted the federal case.