Jailed Newbury Sex Offender Soccer Dad Hit With New Charges

By Damien Fisher, NH Journal

Federal prosecutors went back to the grand jury and obtained three new child sex abuse image indictments against sex-offending soccer dad Marc Jacques.

Jacques, 52, was originally indicted on one count of possession of child sex abuse images in March, more than a year after he was charged in the case. He allegedly obtained the images while he was waiting to start serving a five-year prison sentence for a 2024 child sex abuse image conviction. Jacques had been granted months of free time after he pleaded guilty in 2024 so that he could attend soccer games for his transgender child, Maelle Jacques.

This summer, as his trial date approached, Jacques asked for more time to negotiate a plea agreement. That pushed the trial out to November. Those negotiations don’t seem to have been fruitful, as prosecutors sought, and received, three new indictments on Oct. 7.

If convicted, Jacques now faces up to 20 years on each of the three felony counts.

Also Read

• ‘Soccer Dad’ To Defendant Again: Marc Jacques Indicted In New Child Porn Charges
• Convicted Child Porn Offender Marc Jacques Gets Time To Make A Deal On New Charge
• Newbury Child Sexual Abuse Image Distributor Faces New Charge
• Child Sexual Abuse Image Distributor Held Without Bail; U.S. Attorney Praises Parents
• Feds Arrest Child Abuse Material Distributor Convict, Father Of Kearsarge Trans Athlete

The Jacques saga began in 2024 when he pleaded guilty to one count of CSAM possession that March. When he was sentenced to five years in prison that September, Jacques was given until Dec. 2, 2024, to report to prison so he could hang out at high school girls’ soccer games.

Court records allege Jacques also used his free time to download several graphic and disturbing videos depicting child sex abuse.

Before his prison sentence was scheduled to start, federal Probation and Parole officers handling his case allowed Jacques a work laptop, a personal laptop, and a cellphone. His case officers installed tracking software on all his devices, allowing them to monitor his online activity.

Yet court records show that no one in probation and parole checked the tracking software for months. According to investigative reports, Jacques allegedly made illegal downloads in August and September 2024, but his case officer didn’t check the tracking program until Oct. 16.

That check occurred after the U.S. Attorney’s Office asked Probation and Parole about Jacques’ case on Oct. 15, 2024. Residents had started calling the U.S. attorney in the days before the check, concerned that Jacques was attending Kearsarge High School girls soccer games completely unsupervised.

Maelle Jacques was a controversial star athlete for Kearsarge at the time, and many parents initially objected to a large biological boy competing against daughters. Their objections quickly refocused when they realized that Marc Jacques, who was hanging out at the school games, was convicted of CSAM possession.

Jacques was arrested Oct. 18 after his case officer finally learned he was downloading CSAM to a thumb drive. During the Oct. 18 arrest, Jacques tried to downplay the material and claimed there was nothing illegal.

“Jacques admitted to the probation officer that he possessed an unauthorized flash drive and that he knew of the sexually explicit content on the flash drive. Jacques denied that the flash drive contained any illegal images,” one of the search warrant affidavits states.

The affidavits describe the images and videos as horrific. Jacques was downloading and saving graphic sexual assaults involving prepubescent girls, and at least one boy estimated to be between 8 and 10, according to the affidavits.

When he was arrested in October 2024, investigators had search warrants for the internet-enabled devices in Jacques’ Newbury home. But those devices weren’t there. Instead, an unnamed family member gathered a laptop, a cellphone, and Maelle Jacques’ iPad and brought them to another family member’s home, according to court records.

Investigators recovered the devices on Oct. 23. After that five-day gap, court records show no CSAM was found on the devices.

Jacques immediately started his five-year sentence in October 2024, and he was officially charged in December for violating his presentence release. But Jacques delayed the case repeatedly to seek a negotiated plea agreement.

Before he was indicted in March, all federal judges in New Hampshire recused themselves from the case, and U.S. District Judge Amy Moses for the District of Rhode Island was appointed.

The mass recusal likely reflects the role Probation and Parole didn’t play in overseeing Jacques during his 2024 presentence free time. District court judges in the federal system oversee Probation and Parole staff, creating a potential conflict if those staffers were called as witnesses at trial.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.