A registered sex offender has been sentenced to ten years in prison after previously pleading guilty to attempted enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, possession with intent to view child pornography and attempted transmission of obscene material to a minor. announced United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha.
Mathew Hoard, 40, of Smithfield, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy to 120 months in prison, followed by eight years of federal supervised release.
In July 2020, Hoard began communicating online and via text message with a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl, but who was in fact an undercover Newport Police Department detective. According to information presented to the court, during those communications, which lasted more than two months, Hoard sent a sexually explicit image and sexually explicit messages, repeatedly requesting that the “girl” send nude photos of herself to Hoard. He also tried to arrange a meeting to have sex.
In February 2020, the Rhode Island State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, while conducting an unrelated National Center for Missing and Exploited Children investigation, learned that an individual had uploaded child pornography to a social media platform. Task Force members later determined that the upload came from an IP address used by Mathew Hoard. On September 29, 2020, members of the ICAC Task Force conducted a court-approved search of Hoard’s residence and seized a cell phone and a laptop. The devices were found to contain videos and images of child pornography. Among the images was an image exchanged between Hoard and the undercover Newport Police detective.
In 2011, Hoard was convicted in Rhode Island of possessing child pornography, and as a result of that conviction, he was required to register as a sex offender.
This Project Safe Childhood case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise M. Barton and Julie M. White.
The case was investigated by the Rhode Island State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Newport Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations.
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