Mars Hill woman receives 20-year prison sentence
By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
A Mars Hill mother of four has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by U.S. District Judge John Woodcock for production of pornography. The decision, made in U.S. District Court in Bangor on March 14, involved an incident in June 2009 involving a 2-year-old girl.
Julie M. Carr, 33, was also sentenced March 22 to an additional 15 years in prison for gross sexual assault and Class A sexual exploitation of a minor, both felonies — charges she pleaded guilty to before District Court Judge Bruce Jordan at the Penobscot Judicial Center. Michael Roberts, deputy attorney for Penobscot County, and Carr’s defense attorney, Stephen Smith of Bangor, negotiated a plea agreement for 15-year sentences on both felony charges to run concurrently with the federal sentence handed down just days before.
All charges stem from an investigation by law enforcement officers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean dating back to the spring of 2009. Carr had allegedly taken part in a video conference with a man identified as Nicholas J. Wilde, of West Midlands, England, from her residence on Mountain View Street in Mars Hill. According to court proceedings, Carr admitted to sending four live videos to a man in the United Kingdom of herself performing sex acts on her youngest daughter.
Maine State Police were contacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with information detailing an ongoing investigation into child pornography on the Internet, between the United Kingdom and the United States, early in 2009. Det. Sgt. John Cote, Maine State Police Criminal Investigation Division III, worked the case locally, coordinating with I.C.E. agents and officials from England.
Carr and Wilde were subsequently arrested and charged in connection with the crime.
Carr admitted to police she’d sent the videos but said Wilde “conned” her into doing it, according to court records.
Wilde was arrested June 11, 2009, by West Midlands Police and later sentenced to four years and eight months in jail for “inciting a mother in the U.S. to abuse her own child” and distributing indecent images, according to a report by the BBC in February 2010.
Police seized computer equipment at Wilde’s residence that contained footage of Carr abusing a child at the man’s direction, in addition to images of child pornography involving various other children.
U.S. Attorney Todd Lowell told Woodcock in court the one piece of good news was that Wilde had not shared Carr’s videos with others on the Internet, adding Carr “was a mouse click away” from the footage being spread worldwide via computer.
Lowell acknowledge despite the circumstances, the children are doing well, noting “in a way the children have been rescued and saved.”
At the time of her arrest, Carr’s three daughters were all under the age of 4. She also reportedly has an older son. Woodcock said prior to her arrest, Carr had made sexually abusive live-chat videos of her youngest daughter, who was only 34 months old and still in diapers.
Carr was reportedly married at the time she was arrested. Attempts to determine who has custody of the children were unsuccessful at presstime, although an official at Superior Court in Caribou indicated the children were the responsibility of DHHS.
In addition to being sentenced to prison for 20 years, Woodcock also sentenced Carr to 10 years of supervised release, adding a number of additional conditions for after her release from prison. The list includes: monitoring of her computer and Internet use and a ban on alcohol and drug use. Carr will also be required to register as a sex offender.
Carr spoke on her own behalf when sentenced, expressing how sorry she was for her actions, adding, “I never meant to hurt anyone in my family. I regret it.”
Carr had been held in Aroostook County Jail in Houlton since her arrest over 21 months ago.
