RALEIGH – United States Attorney Robert J. Higdon, Jr. announced that today, in federal court, United States District Judge James C. Dever III sentenced ANDRE ALAN THORPE, 36, of Roxboro, North Carolina to 480 months’ imprisonment, followed by lifetime of supervised release.

THORPE was named in an Indictment filed on May 16, 2018, and pleaded guilty on May 2, 2019, to production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

From around 2013 until April 29, 2016, THORPE sexually abused a minor boy.  Using his position as a leader of a church pantomime group, THORPE developed a relationship with the victim and then used drugs and manipulation to groom and control the victim.  The victim’s family eventually moved out of state in part to escape THORPE.  In 2015, THORPE arranged for the victim to return to North Carolina, where he continued to sexually abuse the then-fifteen-year-old.  The victim returned home, but THORPE again transported the victim back to North Carolina in February 2016.  On April 25, 2016, while participating in a church event in Raleigh, THORPE took the victim to a Raleigh residence, where he had sexual contact with the victim and photographed it.  The victim, age sixteen, was recovered in THORPE’s company on April 29, 2016.  Law enforcement subsequently recovered the images of child pornography from THORPE’s cellular phone.

Mr. Higdon commented: “We are very pleased that the Court saw fit to sentence Andre Alan Thorpe to some 40 years in federal prison.  The victim in this case – and the victim’s family – have been terrorized.  As the result of the Court’s sentence this defendant’s life as a predator stops now!”

This case was part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national program aimed at ensuring that criminals exploiting children are effectively prosecuted by making full use of all available law enforcement resources at every level.  For more information about this important national project, Project Safe Childhood, go to www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations and the Raleigh Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Erin Blondel handled the prosecution of this case for the government.