Mason City man sentenced to six years in prison on federal child pornography charge
MASON CITY — It’s six years in federal prison for a Mason City man on child pornography possession charges.
60-year-old Thomas Newman was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty in October to one count of possession of child pornography. The US Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa’s office says evidence shows that in May 2021, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a report from Facebook of a user trafficking child pornography.
Pursuant to a search warrant, the content of Newman’s account was provided to law enforcement. The content included several chats of a sexual nature where Newman solicited child pornography from others. Newman and another individual proposed they create a Facebook group in order to share and trade child porn.
Newman admitted that activity to agents as well as to sharing and receiving child pornography that portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct or the sexual abuse and exploitation of an infant or toddler. Newman admitted he shared about 50 child porn videos.
US District Court Judge Leonard Strand sentenced Newman on Thursday to 72 months in prison and was ordered to pay a total of $30,000 in fines and assessments. He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term and register as a sex offender. There is no parole in the federal system.
