Resident gets 2 years for possessing child porn

HARTFORD » A local man was sentenced Thursday to two years of imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release, for possessing child pornography.

Timothy Allen, 36, of Torrington, previously pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.

This matter stems from “Operation Pacifier,” an FBI investigation into Playpen, a global online forum through which registered users advertised, distributed and accessed child pornography. On Feb. 20, 2015, the FBI seized a computer server hosting Playpen from a webhosting facility in North Carolina, officials said.

Pursuant to a federal court order in the Eastern District of Vir-

ginia, the website operated under FBI supervision Feb. 20 to March 4, 2015. During

that time, the FBI collected information to identify members of Playpen, officials said.

Playpen had more than 150,000 members who created and viewed tens of thousands of postings related

to child pornography. Images and videos shared through the site were highly categorized according to victim age, gender and type of sexual activity. The site also had discussion forums that included tips for grooming victims and avoiding detection, officials said.

The FBI determined a user name connected to an IP address operating at Allen’s home had accessed Playpen for approximately 34 hours during the monitoring period. Investigators then searched his home and seized several devices that he used to view child pornography.

Forensic analysis of the devices revealed more than 4,000 images of child pornography, including images and videos of prepubescent minors as well as more than 60 voyeurism videos, officials said.

He was released on a $50,000 bail and ordered to report to prison on Oct. 17.