Rapid City Man Sentenced to Over 10 Years in Federal Prison for Receiving Child Pornography

RAPID CITY - United States Attorney Ron Parsons announced today that U.S. District Judge Camela C. Theeler has sentenced a Rapid City, South Dakota, man convicted of Receipt of Child Pornography. The sentencing took place on August 24, 2026.

Hayden Sengua, 26, was sentenced to 10 years and one month in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $15,685 in restitution and a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. The Court also ordered the forfeiture of the defendant's external hard drive and two cellular phones.

Sengua was indicted for the charge by a federal grand jury in June 2025. He pleaded guilty on January 21, 2026.

Beginning in 2018 and continuing into January 2025, Sengua knowingly downloaded image and video files containing sexually explicit visual depictions of young children. Sengua saved the files on his cell phone, in his Google account, and on an external hard drive. Altogether, Sengua was in possession of approximately 15,000 total media files depicting child sexual abuse. Some of the imagery Sengua collected depicts the sexual abuse of infants and toddlers, as well as the bondage and torture of minors. Sengua also used a virtual machine to attempt to hide his collection of child pornography.

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. Led by the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the DOJ's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation's Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, and the Pennington County Sheriff's Office. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Knox and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn N. Rich prosecuted the case.

Sengua was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.