The original article = Boston Globe / October 26, 2007

William Constable helped coach the high school sailing team

Boston Globe

Coach faces new child porn charges

Nantucket man appears in court on federal counts

For much of the past year, William "Howe" Constable volunteered to help coach the sailing team at Nantucket High School. He appeared to be a bright guy, a "pleasant individual," who never raised hackles or suspicions, the team's coach said.

Yesterday, six days after he left in a Hyannis hotel room what police say was a digital camera containing incriminating images, Constable appeared in federal district court in Boston on charges that he produced, transported, and possessed child pornography from Thailand, some of which he appeared in, prosecutors said.

"For all of us, we're really shocked by these allegations," Nick Judson, coach of the Nantucket High School team, said in a telephone interview. "We had no inkling that there was anything going on. The whole thing is just incredibly shocking to all of us."

Constable, 53, pleaded not guilty earlier this week in Nantucket and Barnstable district courts to charges of possessing child pornography. His appearance in federal court yesterday is to be followed in several days by an arraignment.

Since learning of the charges, Judson said he has spoken to the team and parents, "We've talked to everyone involved with the team, and we haven't heard of anything inappropriate," he said.

Prosecutors say Constable possessed a camera that included 40 digital video clips of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. They said Constable appears in more than 10 of the videos, one of which shows him raping a girl 6 to 8 years old who was screaming and crying.

Police later searched his house on Nantucket. Authorities said they found more than 100 compact discs, videotapes, and photographs depicting child pornography. They also seized two computers, camera memory cards, and travel documents.

When police confronted him Oct. 19 about the images hotel employees discovered on his camera, prosecutors said, Constable initially described them as "old-fashioned pictures."

They said he later told police he knew the images were illegal. "Constable stated that he traveled to Asia, where he paid for sex with the children depicted on the camera," wrote FBI special agent Sarah De Lair in a sworn statement.

"He said he videotaped himself having sexual intercourse with the children and that he subsequently downloaded the video into his Sony camera in order to 're-create the moment.' "

James M. Merberg, a Boston lawyer representing Constable, declined to comment.

Nantucket Police Chief Charles Gibson said Constable does not have a criminal record.

"All we can say at this point is there is no evidence that any children on Nantucket were involved," he said.

Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said his office will consult with federal prosecutors about prosecuting the case. "We may prosecute some of the charges, and they may prosecute others," he said.

School officials did not return calls yesterday. Peter McEachern, general manager of the Nantucket Yacht Club, where Constable has been a member for years, declined to comment.

Nantucket's town clerk, Catherine Flanagan Stover, said that Constable lives on Nantucket year-round and "comes from a nice family that has lived there for generations."

Constable's relatives could not be reached yesterday.

Prosecutors said he will be held by federal marshals until arraigned.

If convicted of the federal charges, Constable faces a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison

================================================================================

and today's article....

Ex-coach pleads guilty to kid porn

A Nantucket contractor and former high school sailing coach yesterday admitted in federal court he filmed himself sexually assaulting children as young as 5 - sometimes three at a time - on trips to Southeast Asia.

At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston, William H. Constable, 54, changed his plea to guilty to seven counts of sexual exploitation and one count of possession of child pornography.

Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr., will announce June 10 whether he will accept the sentence prosecutors and Constable’s attorney have agreed to recommend. The plea agreement was not made public yesterday.

“We felt the agreement was a fair resolution and an appropriate resolution,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Gershengorn said.

Sexual exploitation carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison. Possesssion of child pornography carries a maximum of 10 years.

Federal authorities arrested Constable on Oct. 25 after he left a digital camera at a Cape Cod hotel. The camera and dozens of cassettes and discs later seized from his home contain images and video clips showing him raping children who appear to be as young as 5 as they cry and scream, Gershengorn said.

Constable, a self-employed contractor who volunteered as an assistant sailing coach at Nantucket High School, described the images as “old-fashioned” pictures he took to “re-create the moment,” she said.

In all, he sexually assaulted approximately 30 children on trips to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, he told authorities. Constable’s passport shows that from 1993 to 2007, he made trips to at least one of those countries every year but one, Gershengorn said.

The FBI and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement have contacted authorities in Southeast Asia to try to identify the girls in the video clips, she said.

“They’re still looking,” Gershengorn said.

- Boston Herald

================================================================================

Nantucket man guilty of child porn charges

BOSTON -- Wearing an orange jumpsuit and looking haggard, William Howe Constable, 54, of Nantucket, pleaded guilty this afternoon to sexually exploiting children and possession of child porn.

In U.S. District Court in Boston, Constable admitted that he traveled to South Asian countries almost every year between 1993 and 2007 and had sex with children on videotape.

Prosecutors said the vast majority of children appeared to be under the age of 12.

He will not be sentenced until June but the sexual exploitation charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and maximum of 30 years.

- Cape Cod Times

================================================================================

Man Pleads Guilty to Sex With Girls

BOSTON — A man who filmed himself sexually assaulting young Asian girls pleaded guilty Tuesday to child pornography charges.

William Constable, 54, a self-employed contractor, was arrested in October when he tried to retrieve a camera he left in a Cape Cod hotel room. A hotel employee who found the camera called police after seeing images of a man having sex with young girls.

Prosecutors said the camera and dozens of cassettes and compact discs later seized from Constable's Nantucket home showed him sexually assaulting girls as young as 5, sometimes two at a time.

During a hearing in U.S. District Court, Constable pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of child pornography. According to a plea agreement filed with the court, the recommended sentence will be 25 years in prison and a $50,000 fine, with restitution to be determined when Constable is sentenced on June 10. He also faces lifetime supervision after his release.

Constable told investigators he videotaped himself having sex with the girls so that he could later "re-create the moment," Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Gershengorn said.

A review of Constable's passport showed that since 1993, he visited Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam every year except one, Gershengorn said. Constable told police he had sex with about 30 underage girls in Asia.

When first questioned by police, he said the girls were between the ages of 12 and 17, but later admitted some of the girls were as young as 7. Authorities who viewed the videos believe the vast majority of the girls were under 12, with some as young as 5, Gershengorn said.

Constable did not speak at the hearing, except to admit the allegations recited by the prosecutor and to enter guilty pleas. He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison on the sexual exploitation charges.

Gershengorn said the FBI has been working with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement and Asian authorities to try to identify the girls in the video clips.

- Associated Press

================================================================================

WHDH Television News

================================================================================

In keeping with thai visa policy on alleged child molestation cases this topic will be updated as necessary.