BURLINGTON, Vt. (NEWS10) – The Office of the United States District Attorney for the District of Vermont said that on March 22, Eike Blohm, 39, of South Burlington, Vermont, was sentenced in United States District Court in Burlington to serve 100 months in prison after a guilty plea to one count of possession of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss also ordered Blohm to serve a 12-year term of supervised release, to pay damages to identified victims, and to pay a special assessment of $100.

Blohm previously pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious conduct and voyeurism in Vermont State Court and was given an 80-to-82 month sentence of jail time for that plea. He will serve both sentences back-to-back.

According to court records, an employee at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVM MC) found a hidden camera in a unisex employee bathroom in the Emergency Department. Investigators in the Chittenden Unit for Special Investigations (CUSI) recovered the camera and found nearly 1,300 videos on it. Around 900 of those videos showed hospital employees in at least two bathrooms at UVM MC.

After finding these videos, the CUSI got a search warrant for Blohm’s house in South Burlington. Investigators seized many digital devices during that residential search. A search of the digital devices showed the presence of child pornography, some of which depicted children under the age of twelve and sadistic and masochistic abuse against children.

U.S. Attorney Nikolas Kerest commended the investigative efforts of the Chittenden Unit for Special Investigations, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara A. Masterson handled the prosecution.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Project Safe Childhood engages federal, state, and local resources to better locate, arrest, and prosecute people who exploit children online, as well as identify and rescue victims.