District of Connecticut

Dec 31, 2023

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Michael J. Krol, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Boston, announced that JUSTIN McKENNEY, 29, formerly of Windsor Locks, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty today in Hartford federal court to child exploitation offenses.

According to court documents and statements made in Court, in October 2021, Glastonbury Police began investigating the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl by an individual she met on Snapchat. The investigation revealed that McKenney, posing as a high school student and using the Snapchat username "keepingupg," began communicating with the minor victim in September 2021, and he subsequently enticed her to engage in sexual activity. In pleading guilty, McKenney also admitted that he received child pornography from three other minor females between the ages of 13 and 17.

McKenney pleaded guilty to one count of enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, which carries a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of life, and one count of receipt of child pornography, which carries a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of five years and a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years. He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven on July 11.

McKenney has been detained since his arrest on March 17, 2022.

This matter has been investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Glastonbury Police Department, the Windsor Locks Police Department, the Manchester Police Department, and the Connecticut Center for Digital Investigations, with the assistance of the Hudson (Mass.) Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy V. Gifford.

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.