A Catonsville man, Steven Christopher Kelban, 50, has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and lifetime supervised release for possessing child sexual abuse material as a repeat offender. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett.
The announcement was made by Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, along with Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger, and Chief Robert McCullough of the Baltimore County Police Department.
According to Kelban’s guilty plea, he had two prior convictions related to child pornography: one in 2015 for possession of obscene matter involving persons under 17 in Shelby County, Alabama, and another in 2016 for distributing child pornography in Baltimore County, Maryland.
Kelban was released from prison in Alabama on November 20, 2023. He returned to Maryland and registered as a sex offender on November 21, listing an address in Baltimore County.
On November 28, the Baltimore County Police Department conducted an online investigation using the BitTorrent network to identify individuals sharing child pornography. Investigators traced an IP address linked to more than 2,000 files—including at least one suspected file of child sexual abuse material—to Kelban’s residence. The same address had been used by Kelban when registering as a sex offender a week earlier. Authorities also found about 150 images and 200 videos depicting child sexual abuse on his cell phone.
This case falls under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide effort launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse through coordination among federal, state, and local agencies (https://www.justice.gov/psc). The initiative focuses on prosecuting offenders and rescuing victims. Information about internet safety education is available at https://www.justice.gov/psc under the “Resources” tab.
Kelly O. Hayes praised both the FBI and BCPD for their investigative work and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Reema Sood for prosecuting the case.
Further details about the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office can be found at https://www.justice.gov/usao-md or https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.
