KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Newtown, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today on charges related to Internet child pornography.

Nicholas Alex Dickinson, 32, of Newtown, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to 10 years in federal prison without parole.

On June 3, 2014, Dickinson pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography over the Internet, attempting to distribute child pornography over the Internet and possessing child pornography. Dickinson admitted that he used a peer-to-peer file-sharing program to collect and share child pornography over the Internet.

On July 18, 2012, a detective with the Kirksville, Mo., Police Department began an investigation relating to the downloading of child pornography files from a list of computers identified by Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) investigators.

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Dickinson’s residence on May 2, 2013. Officers seized a laptop computer, an external hard drive and other computer media during their search. A forensic examination of the computer and computer media determined that Dickinson had saved more than 7,000 images and/or video files of child pornography, in addition to more than 5,000 animation/cartoon files depicting child pornography, more than 2,000 images of child erotica (modeling images), 67 “naturist” videos, four images and two videos of minors depicting bestiality and/or bondage, and four documents of written stories related to sexual activity involving children.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa A. Moore. It was investigated by the Kirksville, Mo., Police Department, the Sullivan County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.

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.”