Des Moines Man Sentenced to 18 Years in Prison on Federal Charge of Manufacturing Child Pornography

DES MOINES, IA - On November 17, 2014, Joshua Parsons, of Des Moines, Iowa, was sentenced by United States District Court Chief Judge James E. Gritzner to 18 years in prison for manufacturing child pornography, announced U. S. Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt. Parsons was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release.

Parsons volunteered his time as a mentor to children in the Des Moines area, took pornographic photographs of a young boy, and used the internet to download hundreds of images and videos of child pornography.

“This investigation involved a quick and effective response from the Marshalltown Police Department to capture a sexual predator and identify the victims of his offenses,” said Marshalltown Police Chief Michael W. Tupper. “The eighteen-year sentence in this case justly reflects the seriousness of the crime.”

The case was investigated by the Marshalltown, Iowa, Police Department and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office as part of the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nationwide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children.

Anyone who knows of a child being sexually abused is encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.

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