A former Middletown police officer has pleaded guilty to child pornography charges, according to the U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts.
Samuel DiProto, 63, of Cromwell, was arrested in May 2013 after authorities traced child pornography files back to his IP address. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said he downloaded sexually explicit photos and videos of children between 2009 and 2013.
DiProto was a Middletown officer from 1987 to August 2009, according to the Middletown Police Department. It’s not clear if he downloaded pornographic content while he was an officer.
Police said after his arrest that a search of DiProto’s computers, hard drives and thumb drives turned up 20-40 videos of minors engaging in sexually explicit behavior, including prepubescent children under the age of 12.
The images were found on an Internet file sharing network and linked back to DiProto’s IP address, police said.
While police were investigating, they determined that DiProto had had inappropriate contact with a child and arrested him on additional charges, including risk of injury to a minor, first-degree unlawful restraint and first-degree reckless endangerment.
DiProto pleaded guilty to child pornography possession in federal court on Wednesday and will be sentenced Dec. 2. He could face between five and 20 years behind bars, along with a lifetime of supervised release.
