Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced registered sex offender Gary Scott Conway, age 45, of Havre de Grace, Maryland, today to 20 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release. Conway pleaded guilty to transporting child pornography, and admitted a 20 year history of sexually abusing at least eight minor victims, including infants and a severely autistic, non-verbal child. Judge Motz ordered that upon his release from prison Conway must continue to register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Idaho Office; Ada County (Idaho) Sheriff Stephen Bartlett; Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler and the Harford County Child Advocacy Center; and U.S. Marshal Johnny Hughes.
According to court documents and testimony at today’s sentencing hearing, Conway has 10 previous criminal convictions, including sexual abuse of a minor and failing to register as a sex offender. Conway’s collection of child pornography numbered over 3,100 images and 319 videos, which Conway collected on the internet. According to the statement of facts in his plea agreement, from October 2014 to July 2015, Conway used an internet chat website to communicate with adults and minor children. Conway admitted that during live video chats on the website, Conway directed teenage boys to masturbate or display their genitalia, and also broadcast videos of himself masturbating to the teenage boys. Beginning on March 30, 2015, he uploaded child pornography to an internet-based file storage service (the service).
On May 29, 2015, representatives from the service notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Conway’s account contained at least 35 videos of child pornography. After an investigation determined that the files were uploaded from Conway’s residence, on July 8, 2015, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at the residence. Investigators seized a desktop computer and other digital media. Forensic analysis of the computer revealed at least 350 images of child pornography, including depictions of prepubescent children engaged in sexual acts.
Conway’s internet file storage service account was examined pursuant to a search warrant, and was found to contain approximately 3,174 unique images and 319 unique videos of child pornography. The graphic and disturbing videos and images depicted prepubescent boys and girls, engaged in sexual acts with adult men, including oral sex and anal sex, and other images of sadistic conduct against children.
On July 14, 2015, Conway fled Maryland. Conway was a registered sex offender having been convicted in 2004 in the Circuit Court for Harford County, Maryland of a sexual offense involving 15 year old victim, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, all of which was initially suspended. When he left Maryland, Conway failed to notify the Maryland Sex Offender Registration authorities, as required by law. He travelled to Virginia, Tennessee, New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, California, Arizona and Idaho.
Conway stayed at a resort in Sedona, Arizona for 12 days, never notifying state authorities of his sex offender status. During that time, two families at the resort complained to the local authorities that Conway made inappropriate sexual advances toward their teenage sons. After being questioned by Sedona Police, Conway left Sedona before his resort reservation was completed. Conway went to an amusement park in California, then to Idaho, where he stayed for more than three weeks, never notifying the state authorities of his sex offender status. He was arrested in Idaho on August 26, 2015.
After his arrest, Conway told law enforcement that on a previous visit to the amusement park he discovered a peephole in a men’s bathroom stall, which allowed him to see the genitalia of children using the nearby stall. He had hoped the peephole still existed, but it did not. Conway admitted that as a medical professional in the Navy, he once performed oral sex on a male patient while the patient was sedated. He also admitted to sexually molesting a severely autistic, non-verbal boy while the victim was 11 to 13 years old; having sexual contact on multiple occasions with an eight year old girl; sexually molesting two infants, one of which was the child of a Navy colleague whom he was babysitting; fondling two boys between the ages of nine and 10 years old while playing with them in and around a pool; and engaging in sex acts with two different 15 year old boys who he met online.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, Harford County Sheriff’s Office, Harford County Child Advocacy Center (HCCAC), Ada County (Idaho) Sheriff’s Office; and U.S. Marshal Service for their work in the investigation. The HCCAC is a task force comprised of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, Maryland State Police – Bel Air Barrack, Aberdeen, Bel Air, and Havre de Grace Police Departments, Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office, Harford County Department of Social Services – Child Protective Services, and Family and Children’s Services of Central Maryland, which investigates allegations of child maltreatment while also providing services and resources for the abused child and his/her family. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Budlow, who prosecuted the case.