Former UNL Student Convicted for Receipt of Child Pornography

Acting United States Attorney Jan Sharp announced that Hunter A. Towle, 19, of Lincoln, Nebraska, was sentenced today in Lincoln by United States District Judge John M. Gerrard for receipt of child pornography. Towle was sentenced to 10 years and 4 months in prison and 15 years of supervised release with special conditions. There is no parole in the federal system. Additionally, Towle was ordered to pay $18,000 in restitution.

This case began when Towle was interviewed by the UNL Police Department (“UNL-PD”) on September 9, 2020 regarding an unrelated matter. During the interview, UNL-PD received consent to review the photos on Towle’s iPhone 8 Plus. The investigator immediately saw child pornography on the phone. The iPhone 8 Plus was seized, and a search warrant was received to search the phone. Subsequently, through further investigation, UNL-PD discovered that Towle had been the main suspect in the investigation of two cyber tips issued by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (“NCMEC”) that had been examined by the Nebraska State Patrol (“NSP”) earlier in 2020.  NSP contacted Towle in April of 2020 to discuss these cyber tips.  Towle admitted to sharing the child pornography images and told the NSP investigator that he would stop and seek medical assistance.

After UNL-PD seized Towle’s phone on September 9, 2020, additional search warrants were received including a warrant for a residential search. During the residential search on October 6, 2020, an additional cellphone of Towle’s – a Motorola Droid – was seized.  A forensic download of Towle’s iPhone 8 Plus revealed 1,323 videos of child pornography and 48 image files of child pornography. A forensic download of Towle’s Motorola Droid cellular phone revealed 26 images of child pornography—which he had received subsequent to the September 9, 2020 interview by UNL-PD.

UNL-PD additionally received a search warrant for Towle’s Instagram account he had used to trade child pornography. A review of the Instagram account revealed consistent attempts by Towle to trade child pornography with other Instagram users. The Instagram account additionally revealed conversations between Towle and others in which he discussed methods of trading child pornography that would be hidden from law enforcement detection because he had previously been caught.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case was investigated by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Department.