Andrew Neil Smith, 33, of Caldwell, Idaho, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 300 months in federal prison for producing child pornography, U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced today. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill also ordered Smith to serve ten years of supervised release following his prison sentence.
Smith pleaded guilty to the charge on November 4, 2019.
According to court records, the investigation began after a ten-year-old child disclosed that Smith had sexually abused her.
FBI agents served a federal search warrant at Smith’s residence in Caldwell and located images of child pornography on Smith’s cellphone.
Smith admitted the images depicted the ten-year-old child and that he asked her to send him the images through social media. Smith also admitted to sexually abusing the child and to producing videos of the abuse.
At sentencing, Judge Winmill also ordered Smith to forfeit the cell phone used in the commission of the offense. As a result of conviction, Smith will be required to register as a sex offender.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Caldwell Police Department.
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.
As part of Project Safe Childhood, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho and the Idaho Attorney General’s Office partner to marshal 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.