SPRINGFIELD, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Nixa, Mo., woman was sentenced in federal court today for sexually exploiting two children to produce child pornography, which she distributed over the Internet.

Meagan Nell Bowman, 26, of Nixa, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to 20 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Bowman to supervised release for the rest of her life following incarceration.

On Dec. 11, 2014, Bowman pleaded guilty to all four counts of a federal indictment that charge her with two counts of sexually exploiting a minor and two counts of receiving and distributing child pornography.

Bowman’s estranged husband discovered photographs in her e-mail account of her sexual abuse of a three-year-old child and a two-year-old child. Bowman admitted that she was communicating over the Internet with two unknown men whom she met after posting an advertisement on Craigslist. She then used her cell phone to take photos of herself sexually abusing the three-year-old child and sent them to the two men. She also admitted that 32 images of child pornography found on her cell phone were created by herself or received from the men she was interacting with over the Internet.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the FBI and the Nixa, Mo., Police Department.

Project Safe Childhood

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.”