FARGO – A Welshman has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after sharing pornographic images of a 13-year-old Fargo girl that were accessed online more than 20,000 times.
Simon William Riley, 21, of Swansea, Wales, pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor, receipt of child pornography and two counts of advertising material involving the sexual exploitation of minors.
U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson sentenced Riley on Tuesday, Sept. 6, ordering him to serve 10 years of supervised release after completing his prison time.
The state Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force learned of Riley’s case from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which discovered a website that contained pornographic images of the Fargo girl, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in North Dakota.
The ICAC Task Force identified the girl, who reported that she used the mobile app Kik Messenger to send the images to another female. But that “female” was actually Riley, who posted links to a file-sharing site where the images were accessed over 20,000 times by people around the world, the office said.
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