CONCORD – Brian Hynes, 35, of Nashua, was sentenced on Oct. 8 to 53 months in prison for the possession of more than 1,100 images of child sexual abuse material.

His sentence will be followed by 10 years of supervised release.

“The defendant exacerbated the pain and suffering of countless child survivors by possessing images of their abuse,” said U.S. Attorney Jane Young. “He then tried to cover up his crime by deleting suspected CSAM when he was confronted by law enforcement. Today’s sentence serves as a warning to those who think that applications and websites will give them enough anonymity to continue victimizing children. Law enforcement will identify you, investigate you, and prosecute you, and you will be incarcerated for your role in the child exploitation epidemic.”

According to investigators, law enforcement officials began following Hynes in August 2021 through the video player application Viber. They ultimately determined that Hynes and an individual with the username “John ketg” were the same person.

After obtaining a search warrant, law enforcement officials confiscated Hynes’ electronic devices in February 2022. According to investigators, he was initially resistant and was observed “swiping up on his phone.”

Once the phone was secured, law enforcement officials conducted a forensic examination of the device which revealed approximately 1,150 CSAM images, many of them showed girls under 10 years old. The phone’s Internet history also showed that Hynes had “visited websites associated with CSAM and had saved bookmarks to websites with phrases and words indicative of CSAM.”

Hynes pleaded guilty to possession of CSAM on May 6 of this year.

“Hynes possessed over a thousand images, each capturing the pain and trauma of a child. The possession and demand for these images perpetuates that pain and today’s sentence shows the consequences–federal prison time,” said Michael Krol, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations New England. “HSI continues to work alongside our partners to detect and bring to justice predators who seek out child sexual abuse material.”