Travis Bessey, 30, of Sedgwick, was sentenced to 60 years in prison after he pleaded guilty last year to two counts of producing child pornography in what Judge Lance Walker called “the most thoroughly disturbing case I have ever seen.”
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In May 2021, Bessey was a part of an online chatroom on Kik—a Canadian-based messaging app—where he and other participants shared child sexual abuse material.
A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent was monitoring the chat room and saw Bessey sharing images of a man sexually abusing two children.
The Maine State Police and HSI secured and executed a search warrant at Bessey’s residence. Bessey admitted to sending and receiving child pornography via the chat room.
A search of his phone revealed images of Bessey himself sexually abusing children. To protect the victims, law enforcement has not made any information public about their ages or genders.
He was sentenced on two counts of producing child pornography and will spend the next 60 years in prison. He must also pay $20,000 in restitution to each of his victims. In the unlikely event that he survives to the age of 90 in prison and is released, he will be under supervised release conditions for the remainder of his life.
The case was investigated by HSI, the Maine State Police, and the Bangor Police Department.
Judge Walker, who has served as a state and federal judge since 2014 and has presided over the trials and sentencing of multiple child sexual abuse cases, said that this is the most disturbing case he has ever seen, which contributed to the lengthy prison sentence.
