A federal judge has sentenced a South Bend man to eight years in prison for possessing child pornography, aggravated identity theft and unauthorized access of a computer.
Prosecutors on Friday said 29-year-old Paul McDowell Jr. was a hacker for hire. Others paid McDowell to hack into young women’s Snapchat accounts, where he used their personal information to access their private photos and videos. McDowell would then share those photos and videos with others online, harassing and blackmailing the victims.
Investigators obtained a search warrant and seized McDowell’s computer and phone from his home.
In a statement, Ted Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, said, “To make matters worse, the FBI found tens of thousands of images and videos of child sexual abuse material on his devices. This guy didn’t just break into computer systems, he broke young people’s lives, violated their privacy, and today’s sentence will keep him locked up for a good long time so he can’t harm anyone else.”
