Donald Schwartz

Introduction

Donald Schwartz is a 74-year-old man from Londonderry, New Hampshire, who was sentenced to five years in federal prison for possessing child sexual abuse material after an undercover operation caught him using specialized peer-to-peer software both to receive videos depicting the abuse of children and to make them available to other users. A search of his home uncovered more than a dozen devices that together held thousands of images and videos of child sexual abuse. U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty imposed the 60-month term with five years of supervised release and ordered Schwartz to pay $112,000 in restitution to 15 identified victims — the children depicted in the material he collected. U.S. Attorney Erin Creegan said the sentence “shows that those who fuel the market for child abuse and re-victimize children by collecting and sharing images of that abuse will be held accountable” .

Background Information

In late 2023, an undercover law enforcement operation identified Schwartz as using specialized peer-to-peer software to receive videos containing child sexual abuse material — and, using the same software, to make that material available to other users. Homeland Security Investigations led the investigation, and a subsequent search of Schwartz’s home discovered over a dozen devices which together contained thousands of images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children . The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, the Department of Justice’s nationwide initiative — led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section since 2006 — to locate, apprehend and prosecute those who exploit children .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted possessing thousands of child sexual abuse images and videos; sentenced to five years with restitution to 15 victims.

The case against Schwartz rested on the undercover operation’s identification of his peer-to-peer activity and the subsequent home search, which seized more than a dozen devices containing thousands of child sexual abuse images and videos . U.S. Attorney Erin Creegan said in the announcement: “The defendant used his technical proficiency to amass an extensive collection of child sex abuse material,” framing the sentence as a message that collecting and sharing such images fuels the market for child abuse . Jeffrey Grimming, Acting Special Agent in Charge of HSI New England, said: “Donald Schwartz possessed thousands and thousands of images depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. We can never undo the trauma inflicted upon these children when those images were captured,” and committed HSI to holding accountable individuals who perpetuate that trauma by participating in the trade of child sexual abuse imagery .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The sentence’s most distinctive term was the restitution order: $112,000 payable to the 15 victims identified in the material — a court-mandated acknowledgment that each download re-victimizes the children shown. The Justice Department paired the announcement with its standard Project Safe Childhood messaging that such cases marshal federal, state and local resources to identify and rescue victims . Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew Vicinanzo and John Kennedy prosecuted the case, with HSI as the lead investigative agency .

Current Status

Schwartz, 74, is serving a 60-month federal sentence imposed by Judge McCafferty, to be followed by five years of supervised release, with the $112,000 restitution obligation to 15 identified victims standing alongside it . The Justice Department’s announcement was updated November 12, 2026, and records no further pending charges or appeal .

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 74, Schwartz begins a five-year term that will take him to about 80 years of age by release, followed by supervised custody and a sex-offence conviction on the federal record. The court’s restitution order converts the 15 children shown in his collection into named creditors of his sentence — a financial obligation that survives the custodial term and formalizes the re-victimization his possession caused . The announcement’s emphasis on his “technical proficiency” — the peer-to-peer software that let him both amass and redistribute the material — places the Londonderry case in the record as an example of how investigators now intercept collection-and-sharing operations that once stayed invisible .

Sources

• “Londonderry Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Materials” — U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Hampshire, 12 November 2026: source