HOULTON, Maine — A convicted sex offender and lifetime registrant on the state’s sex offender registry was arrested on Friday after a search warrant was executed at his home and police allegedly discovered sexually explicit material that he had been disseminating over the Internet.
Houlton Police Chief Butch Asselin said Monday that Gary E. Schillinger, 60, was charged with one count of dissemination of sexually explicit material, a felony. The investigation began after statements Schillinger made to police last month when police received a request to do a welfare check on Schillinger at his Steward Road residence.
Detective Stewart Kennedy began a search of Schillinger on Facebook. Images were posted on Schillinger’s Facebook page that prompted Kennedy to contact the National Center for Missing Children, who assisted Houlton police in the investigation.
Asselin said that as a result of the information provided by the National Center for Missing Children, it was determined that Schillinger was disseminating child pornography using his email accounts. Photographs attached to the email allegedly contained explicit pictures of children under the age of 12. There is no evidence that any of the images were of children from the greater Houlton area.
A search warrant was obtained by Kennedy on Wednesday and executed Friday. The search was conducted by members of the Houlton Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations and Officer Bill Scull of the Presque Isle Police Department.
Schillinger was placed under arrest without incident and taken to the Houlton Police Department. Police seized computers, journals and thumb drives during the search.
Schillinger was convicted of public indecency on May 14, 1985 and three counts of gross sexual misconduct on June 9, 1986. He was jailed in 1986 for sexually assaulting three girls in one family, all of whom were under age 14. He also was convicted of using the U.S. Postal Service to send photocopied pictures of children engaging in actual and simulated sex acts. On Dec. 3, 1990, Schillinger’ probation was revoked for failing to complete sex offender counseling.
In 2008, Schillinger was beaten by two men after he outlined his status as a sex offender and spoke out against a plan that altered how residents were notified about sex offenders living in the community during a town council meeting. The men were later arrested and charged.