New Castle Man Sentenced To 15 Years In Federal Prison For Second Child Pornography Conviction
Wilmington, Del. – A New Castle, Delaware man was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for possessing and attempting to receive child pornography, announced David C. Weiss, U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware.
On October 24, 2019, a federal jury for the District of Delaware found Thomas Noble, 71, guilty of one count of attempting to receive child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography after three days of trial. On February 26, 2020, Chief U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark sentenced Noble to serve 15 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release.
According to publicly filed documents and statements made in open court, while executing a search warrant at Noble’s home, law enforcement caught Noble actively downloading child pornography using peer-to-peer file sharing software. Later forensic analysis of Noble’s computer revealed 54 videos of child pornography and more than 900 hundred images of child pornography, including files depicting the sexual exploitation of prepubescent girls. Noble had previously been convicted in the State of Delaware on child pornography charges.
In 2013 a proactive undercover online investigation by the Delaware Child Predator Task Force into the distribution of child pornography has led to the arrest of a Noble, AKA Thomas Guyer, AKA Walter Guyer.
Noble was charged after undercover detectives received files containing child pornography from a subject in Delaware, investigators tracked the source of those files to a residence in New Castle. On November 21, 2013 detectives executed a search warrant at the residence, located in the 600 block of Central Avenue, and seized one computer, multiple digital storage devices, and numerous pages of printed material containing child pornography. During the search, then 65-year-old Noble, the owner of the residence, was taken to DSP Troop #2 for further investigation.
As a result of that investigation, detectives arrested Noble on November 21 and charged him with 26 counts of Dealing in Child Pornography. His case was adjudicated on April 14, 2016, according to the Delaware Sex Offender Registry.
“The 15-year sentence imposed on Noble sends a clear message that there are serious consequences for those possessing sexually explicit images of children,” said William S. Walker, Acting Special Agent in Charge of HSI Philadelphia, referring to the federal charged. “HSI is dedicated to identifying these predators, and bring them to justice.”U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss stated as follows, “Our office is dedicated to protecting the most vulnerable among us – our children – from the abhorrent shadow industry that produces, distributes, and collects child pornography and from those who lurk in its base marketplace. Defendant’s time of preying on our children has come to an end.”
“As a New Castle, Delaware man was sentenced today to 15 years in prison, everyone should know the protection of our children are a top priority for Delaware Law Enforcement. Our laser focus is to defend, guard and shield our most vulnerable for a safer Delaware. We are beholden to the prosecutors and the investigators who work tirelessly to protect our precious children from predators who seek to exploit them,” said Sergeant Richard Bratz, spokesperson for the Delaware State Police.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Delaware State Police investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Graham L. Robinson and Alexander P. Ibrahim of the District of Delaware prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.