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Prominent Nashuan indicted on child porn charges

By Staff | Mar 30, 2011

NASHUA – A former city official was indicted last week on charges of making, possessing and distributing child pornography.

Sean Neary, 55, of 26 Kessler Farm Road, posted $25,000 bail after his arrest in December and is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges next month in Hillsborough County Superior Court.

The indictments signal police have wrapped up their investigation, though Detective Lt. George McCarthy noted investigators are always open to new information.

“There is always the potential of additional charges,” he said.

Neary was active in the community, and his arrest in December came as a shock to many.

Neary had volunteered with the Boy Scouts, though not for several months before his arrest, and also had headed the city’s Mine Falls Park Advisory Committee since 2008.

Among other things, the volunteer group organizes clean-ups and trail maintenance within the park.

Police investigated Neary’s known contact with minors and apparently found no evidence of any sexual assaults.

The charges against Neary carry lengthy prison sentences if he’s convicted.

Neary previously had been charged with possession and distribution of images depicting the sexual abuse of children. He is now charged with one count of distribution, punishable by up to 10 to 20 years; and two counts of manufacturing child pornography, each punishable by up to 15 to 30 years. The manufacturing charges allege that Neary arranged images of one or more minor females into two different Power Point slideshows.

Neary also faces seven counts of possession of child pornography, each involving minors depicted in explicitly sexual context, and each carrying a maximum sentence of 7½ to 15 years in prison. The distribution charge alleges Neary sent one such image to a Massachusetts State Trooper working undercover online.

At the time of his arrest, police with the state Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force said they found “hundreds” of images and videos on Neary’s computer, mostly depicting the physical and sexual abuse of prepubescent children.

“It’s brutal stuff,” Portsmouth police Capt. Corey MacDonald told The Telegraph at the time, adding, “These are little children being brutally raped.”

The ICAC Task Force notified Nashua Police on Sept. 19 that an Internet address in the city appeared to be hosting known child pornographic images, and offering them “in a file-sharing environment,” police said after Neary’s arrest.

Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410 or awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com.

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