Attleboro Man Found Guilty in Child Pornography Case

FALL RIVER (WBSM) — An Attleboro man was found guilty of possessing and distributing child pornography in Fall River Superior Court.

Jury Finds Attleboro Man Guilty

Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III announced that Mark Nicholson, 62, was found guilty by a jury on April 16 on three counts of possession of child pornography and one count of distribution of material of a child in a state of nudity.

Nicholson was sentenced to four to five years in state prison followed by five years of supervised probation.

Get our free mobile app

Investigation Began With Online File Sharing

The charges originated in March 2020, when Taunton Police Detective Randy Demello found and downloaded six images of child pornography being shared over a peer-to-peer file sharing network. He was able to identify the IP address as belonging to Nicholson.

In August 2020, Demello teamed with Attleboro Police and Homeland Security Investigations to execute a search warrant at Nicholson’s home, where he lived alone. In his bedroom, investigators found a computer and two hard drives.

Thousands of Files Found on Computer

The search warrant yielded approximately 8,600 child pornography files from Nicholson’s computer and hard drives. The computer had a username of "Mark" and was not password protected. Demello also determined that the file sharing service installed onto the computer was used to distribute child pornography in March 2020. Nicholson told police he was the only person that used that computer.

Statement From D.A. Quinn

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