Rome Man Sentenced To 16 Years In Prison On Child Porn Charges

A Rome man will spend 200 months behind bars after being sentenced on Tuesday for receiving and possessing child pornography.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says as part of his guilty plea, 56-year old Michael Mayhew admitted that in December of 2018, he took photographs of a six-year-old child naked in a bathroom using a cellular telephone, including images that captured the child’s genitals.

But that's not all.

They say Mayhew also admitted that in 1993 and 1994 he secretly video recorded three children under the age of 12 in his home, again capturing videos of them naked.

Mayhew further admitted that from 2010 to 2015 he downloaded from the internet numerous graphic video files of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Finally, Mayhew admitted that in March of 2019 he possessed 184 images of child pornography on an electronic storage device in his home, and he also possessed on two separate VHS tapes the sexually explicit videos he took in 1993 and 1994.

Mayhew was also sentenced to a 30-year term of supervised relief after he's released from prison.

He’ll also have to register as a sex offender.

The case was investigated by the FBI, Oneida County Sherriff’s Office, Rome Police Department, Oneida County District Attorney’s Office, Oneida County Child Advocacy Center, New York State Police, and the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Brown prosecuted he case a part of Project Safe Childhood

Project Safe Childhood brings together federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims.