Ashland Man Sentenced for Receiving Child Sexual Abuse Material

ASHLAND, Ky. - An Ashland man, Nathaniel Parsons, 46, was sentenced on Monday to 15 years by Chief U.S. District Judge David Bunning for receiving a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Law enforcement identified an IP address located in Ashland that was sharing child sexual abuse material on peer-to-peer software, EMule. A search warrant was executed at the address, which was Parsons' residence, and multiple digital devices were seized and searched. In total 84,000 images and 500 videos containing minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct were discovered on the devices. Also, discovered on Parson's electronic devices were sexually explicit images of a minor known to Parsons. The minor admitted that the images were not created at the request of Parsons and were taken from the minor's phone, who was unaware that Parsons was in possession of the images.

Jason Parman, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Olivia Olson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office; and Chief Todd Kelley, Ashland Police Department, jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and Ashland Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Roth prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

The U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted this case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. 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.govLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..

- END -