A former Allen & Overy partner has been jailed for 17 and a half years in the US for distributing child pornography and sexually abusing a child.
Edward De Sear plead guilty to four counts of distributing child pornography and admitted arranging for a six-year-old boy to be delivered from Paris to a hotel room in Brussels, where he sexually molested the child. De Sear paid the boy's father to faciliate the trip.
De Sear's glittering career saw him join A&O's New York office in 2010 from Bingham McCutcheon. Before that he was chairman of Orrick's structured finance practice. It was claimed in De Sear's federal indictment that while at Bingham he used its wireless network to download hundreds of images and videos of children being abused. He resigned from A&O in July 2011 when federal prosecutors in Newark arrested and charged him with distributing child pornography. At the time a spokesman said the firm was "shocked and appalled".
As well as being jailed, De Sear was ordered to pay $1.1 million to the boy he abused and $100k to the victims of his illegal downloading. His lawyer paid a cheque for $1.2 million into court when he was sentenced. In a statement to the court De Sear thanked the FBI and prosecutors for tracking him down and said he was "crushed with remorse and shame". He said his capture "may have saved me from hell".
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Edward De Sear plead guilty to four counts of distributing child pornography and admitted arranging for a six-year-old boy to be delivered from Paris to a hotel room in Brussels, where he sexually molested the child. De Sear paid the boy's father to faciliate the trip.
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Edward De Sear |
De Sear's glittering career saw him join A&O's New York office in 2010 from Bingham McCutcheon. Before that he was chairman of Orrick's structured finance practice. It was claimed in De Sear's federal indictment that while at Bingham he used its wireless network to download hundreds of images and videos of children being abused. He resigned from A&O in July 2011 when federal prosecutors in Newark arrested and charged him with distributing child pornography. At the time a spokesman said the firm was "shocked and appalled".
As well as being jailed, De Sear was ordered to pay $1.1 million to the boy he abused and $100k to the victims of his illegal downloading. His lawyer paid a cheque for $1.2 million into court when he was sentenced. In a statement to the court De Sear thanked the FBI and prosecutors for tracking him down and said he was "crushed with remorse and shame". He said his capture "may have saved me from hell".
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