A Chicago man was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for sharing dozens of child pornography images.
Donald Bowen, 54, traded the pornographic images with others using an online, electronic file-sharing network from August 2012 to September 2014, when he unknowingly granted an undercover officer access to his password-protected folder, according to a statement form the U.S. attorney’s office.
The officer downloaded 39 images of child pornography from the folder, including images of young children engaging in sexually explicit conduct, the U.S. attorney’s office said. More than 4,000 videos and 6,000 images of child pornography were found in a subsequent forensics search of Bowen’s computer.
Bowen pleaded guilty last year to one count of transportation of child pornography, the U.S. attorney’s office said. He had a prior conviction for a misdemeanor child abuse offense that triggered the mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years.
Bowen also admitted in a plea agreement that he possessed child pornography images on various electronic devices, including a cellphone and 15 optical discs, the U.S. attorney’s office said. He also admitted to having a three-ring binder of hundreds of printed photographs depicting child pornography.
