Cambridge Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison
A Cambridge man has been sentenced for enticement and coercion of a minor. Maryland U-S District Judge Ellen Hollander on Friday sentenced 74 year old Richard Robinson to 10 years in federal prison followed by 25 years of supervised release. According to his guilty plea, Robinson communicated with a 12 year old boy using cell phones and the internet to arrange meetings for sexual activity – and documented that activity on his cell phone. A CyberTip to uploaded suspected child pornography led to Robinson’s arrest. When released from prison, Robinson must register as a sex offender.
This case was part of Project Safe Childhood – a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
Additional information from the MD USAO:
In July of 2021, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (“NCMEC”) received a CyberTip report from Snapchat, reporting that Robinson’s Snapchat account had uploaded suspected child pornography. Law enforcement later executed a search at Robinson’s residence and seized two cellular phones and additional electronic media. Investigators forensically examined the content of the phones seized from Robinson’s residence and reviewed the content of his Snapchat and Gmail accounts after obtaining search and seizure warrants. The sexually explicit images that Robinson produced of the victim on July 17, 2018 were found on both of Robinson’s cell phones. After his abuse of the victim, Robinson sent text messages to others describing his sexual abuse of the boy and used Snapchat to distribute the sexually explicit images he took of the victim to others. In addition to distributing sexually explicit images of the victim to other internet users, Robinson also engaged in sexually explicit communication regarding minors. During these communications, Robinson discussed the sexual abuse of children, including a prepubescent child who was being cared for by another Snapchat user. On June 9, 2021, Robinson received sexually explicit images depicting the sexual abuse of a two-year-old male victim from that Snapchat user. After receiving the images, Robinson asked the Snapchat user about the abuse and encouraged the Snapchat user to “take some pics.”
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 Attorney’s 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.Â
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.
