A man who distributed child pornography was sentenced July 17, 2014, to five years in federal prison.

Todd Techen, age 22, of Ashton, Iowa, received the sentence after an April 17, 2014, guilty plea to one count of distribution of child pornography. At the guilty plea hearing, Techen admitted that, between 2012 and January 2013, he knowingly distributed child pornography.

Techen was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett. Techen was sentenced to 60 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $100 was imposed, and Techen must also serve a ten-year term of supervised release. He must comply with all sex offender registration and public notification requirements.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 13-4079.