Attleboro man sentenced to prison in Fall River court for possessing and distributing child pornography after 8,600 files located

Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn, III has announced that a 62-year-old man was found guilty after a jury trial in the Fall River Superior Court on Thursday of three counts of Possession of Child Pornography and one count of Distribution of Material of a Child in a State of Nudity. 

Mark Nicholson, of Attleboro, MA was sentenced by the Honorable Thomas Perrino to a State Prison sentence of 4 to 5 years followed by 5 years of supervised probation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jose Vazquez. 

In March 2020, Detective Randy Demello of the Taunton Police Department successfully located and downloaded six child pornographic files that were being shared over a peer-to-peer file sharing network.  Detective Demello was able to identify the IP address for this computer that used a particular version of computer software.  Subscriber records showed that the IP address belonged to the defendant, Mark Nicholson. 

In August 2020 investigators from the Attleboro Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations, along with Detective Demello from the Taunton Police Department, executed a search warrant at Nicholson’s single-family home.  It was determined that the defendant lived alone at the residence.  In his bedroom, investigators located a computer along with two hard drives.  The search warrant yielded approximately 8,600 files of child pornography from the defendant’s computer and hard drive.  The computer had a username of “Mark” and was not password protected.  Detective Demello also determined that the file sharing service installed onto the computer was used to disseminate files of child pornography in March 2020.  Nicholson made statements to police that he was the only person that used that computer. 

“The defendant has demonstrated that he has a disturbed and disordered mind by disseminating hundreds of nude photos of children.  The sentence is warranted,” District Attorney Tom Quinn said.