Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that Geoffrey Hayes, 40,  formerly of Ridge Road in the Town of Ontario, now residing in the Town of Webster, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with possession, receipt, and distribution of child pornography, which carry a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison, a maximum of 40 years, and a fine up to $250,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Katelyn M. Hartford, who is handling the case, stated that in November 2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a child pornography CyberTip from Stelivo LLC, a company that runs several chatroom websites, including FreeChat. The tip reported that an individual, later identified as Hayes, uploaded approximately 11 image files of suspected child pornography to the website schat.freechatnow.com.

Hayes is a registered sex offender who was convicted of Attempted Possession of a Sexual Performance by a Child in 2021 after an arrest in November of 2020. In that case he was sentenced to six months in the Wayne County Jail.

He was again arrested in November of 2023 for Violation of Probation by State Police Investigators out of Williamson on the original charge and sentenced on May 17, 2024 to six months in the Wayne County Jail.

At that time a search warrant was executed at the Ridge Road address. During the search, investigators seized two cell phones. An analysis of one of the phones recovered approximately 83 image files of suspected child pornography, approximately 41 image files of suspected child exploitative and erotica images, and approximately 81 image files of age difficult explicit material. An analysis of the second phone recovered approximately 5,174 image files and approximately 1,901 video files of suspected child pornography, and approximately 6,714 image files and 205 videos of child exploitative and erotica material.

Hayes made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Colleen D. Holland and was held pending a detention hearing.