A Marionville, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court for reportedly producing, receiving and distributing child pornography, according to a March 17 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement news release.
James Crowder, 78, was arrested after National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent a CyberTipline report indicating Google discovered files containing child pornography uploaded to his account and Twitter discovered a similar file, the news release reported.
"On March 29, 2021, Crowder pleaded guilty to one count of using a minor to produce child pornography and one count of receiving and distributing child pornography," the release said. Crowder received a sentence of more than 18 years without any possibility of parole. Once released, Crowder will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.
Once arrested, Crowder admitted to trading images and videos of child pornography involving children as young as 5 years old during a period of at least four years. Further, he admitted to having put a secret camera in a bathroom to gain more videos and images of children, then distributed those files over the internet.
The investigation was handled by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations and the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force. This case was handled as part of the Project Safe Childhood program.
