A Massachusetts man was sentenced today to 480 months in prison for trafficking in thousands of images and videos of child sexual abuse while incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dix for a previous offense of transporting and possessing child pornography, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
Federal officials said in a statement that William H. Noble, 57, of Lowell, Massachusetts, was convicted in November 2021 after a three-day jury trial before Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez of conspiring to receive and distribute explicit images of minors, receiving explicit images of minors, distributing explicit images of minors, possessing explicit images of minors, and accessing with intent to view explicit images of minors on federal property.
Judge Rodriguez imposed today’s sentence in Camden federal court. In addition to the prison term, Judge Rodriguez sentenced Noble to five years of supervised release.
Officials say Noble was also ordered to pay $63,415 in restitution to the victims.
According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial:
From November 1, 2016, to April 26, 2017, while an inmate at FCI-Fort Dix, Noble participated in a conspiracy with other inmates to receive and distribute images of underage sexual abuse. Noble served an 81-month sentence following his guilty plea in the District of Massachusetts to transportation and possession of explicit images of minors. He was scheduled to be released on March 8, 2018.
While in prison, Noble and his conspirators accessed images of child sexual abuse on the “dark web” using cell phones that had been smuggled into the jail. They then stored the images on micro SS.D.cards, which they shared amongst the conspirators.
On April 19, 2017, Noble transferred a micro SS.D.card containing over 2,400 images and nearly 100 videos of child sexual abuse to a government informant. Many of the images and videos depicted the sexual abuse of prepubescent minors, including infants and toddlers.
At the time of the transfer, Noble was recorded describing the minor sexual abuse images and videos to the informant. Noble’s conspirators were also recorded describing Noble’s role and conduct in furtherance of the conspiracy.
When Noble was arrested on February 5, 2018, he confessed to the FBI.
The charges against Noble stem from a long-term investigation by the FBI, which led to similar charges against seven other FCI-Fort Dix inmates. All of the other defendants have already pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme.