U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang Wednesday sentenced an Irish man Eric Eoin Marques to 27 years in federal prison, followed lifetime supervised release, for conspiracy to advertise child pornography on the “dark web”.
Prosecutors said Marques was one of the world’s largest providers of child pornography.
Eric Eoin Marques, age 36, a dual national citizen of the United States and Ireland, pleaded guilty to that charge on February 6, 2020, after he was extradited by Irish authorities. Marques arrived in the United States on March 23, 2019, to face federal criminal charges filed in Maryland on August 8, 2013, The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.
According to his plea agreement, between July 24, 2008 and July 29, 2013, Marques conspired to advertise child pornography by operating a free, anonymous web hosting service (AHS) located on the “dark web”, an area of the Internet that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.
DOJ said that the sentence was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner; Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; and Assistant Director Calvin Shivers of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.
“Eric Marques was one of the largest facilitators of child pornography in the world,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan Lenzner said. “This is an egregious case where one individual facilitated the abuse of more than a million new child victims and attempted to keep the abuse hidden on the dark web.”
Marques pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to advertise child pornography after being extradited to the United States in March of 2019.
Authorities said millions of images of child exploitation material were found from the websites Marques hosted and removed from the hosting service.
“Many of these images involved sadistic abuse of infants and toddlers,” the Justice Department said.
Marques was also sentenced to lifetime supervised release.
“Today’s sentencing of Eric Marques sends a clear message to perpetrators of this egregious crime that no matter where you are in the world, law enforcement will hold you accountable and bring you to justice,” FBI Assistant Director Calvin Shivers said. “The FBI combats crimes against children and stands up for vulnerable children across the globe,” he added.
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