Bus Driver Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges

A Seacoast-area bus driver pleaded guilty Tuesday to six counts of sexual exploitation of children.

John Allen Wright, 46, of Milton – a Provider bus service employee who had transported children in Rockingham County, Strafford County, and Kittery, Maine, from 2008 until his arrest last fall – entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Concord, U.S. Attorney John P. Kacavas announced in a press release issued this afternoon.

In February, 2011, a member of New Hampshire’s Internet Crimes Against Children (NH ICAC) Task Force initiated an undercover investigation to locate and identify individuals possessing and trading images of child pornography through file sharing networks, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Information obtained as a result of the investigation led to the issuance of a search warrant for Wright’s residence in Milton. In the course of the search, computers and peripherals were seized and forensic examination revealed several videos depicting Wright sexually assaulting minor children who were passengers aboard his school bus. The initial search also revealed thousands of child sexual assault images that had been downloaded from the internet.

A subsequent federal search warrant yielded further evidence linking Wright to the production of the videos, the U.S. Attorney said. Wright has been in custody since his . He will remain detained pending sentencing scheduled for Dec. 20. He faces a minimum mandatory prison term of 15 years on each of five counts of the six count indictment and a total maximum prison term of up to 160 years.

In addition to the NH ICAC Task Force, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New London Police Department, the Dover Police Department, and the Kittery, Maine Police Department contributed to this investigation and prosecution.