COEUR D’ALENE – Joshua Jay Downer, 26, of Moscow, Idaho, was sentenced this morning to 84 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for possessing sexually explicit images of minors, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge also ordered Downer to attend sex offender treatment, register as a sex offender, and forfeit the computer used in the offense. Downer pleaded guilty to the charge on September 6, 2011.

According to the plea agreement, in September 2010, North Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force investigators learned that computer equipment in Downer’s home was used to download over 100 child pornography files on a peer-to-peer file sharing network. In November 2010, ICAC investigators executed a search warrant at Downer’s home and seized computer equipment. When interviewed, Downer admitted to downloading the child pornography files. Forensic examination of the seized files found that a large portion were videos involving children under the age of six. Some of the files were submitted to the National Center for Mission and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for comparison with the Child Recognition Identification System. NCMEC subsequently identified images containing minor children that had been produced in many states, including Washington, Indiana, Nevada, Michigan, North Carolina, Nebraska, Georgia, Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, as well as a number of foreign countries.

The case was investigated by the North Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a group comprised of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in North Idaho.