St. Lawrence County man sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexual exploitation of child

Skyler Keleher

A former Potsdam resident was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Thursday for live streaming the sexual abuse of a two-year-old child.

Skyler Keleher, 23, was convicted on two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, according to U.S. Attorney Carla B. Freedman, Syracuse, Craig L. Tremaroli, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and New York State Police Superintendent Steven G. James.

In his previous guilty plea, Keleher admitted that on at least two separate occasions in 2017, he sexually abused a two-year-old child and live-streamed the abuse to others over the internet, using Facebook Messenger and Facebook Live. Since then, video footage of the abuse has been widely circulated online and recovered by law enforcement in at least 26 separate investigations in the United States and abroad. Although the videos were first documented by law enforcement in 2018, Keleher’s identity was not confirmed until 2022, when he was arrested by authorities.

After serving his prison sentence, Keleher will be placed on lifetime parole and must register as a sex offender.

This case was investigated by FBI Operation Rescue Me, the FBI’s Albany Division Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, and the New York State Police, Troop B. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa M. Fletcher, Project Safe Childhood Coordinator for the Northern District of New York, prosecuted the case.

Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children online, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov