Department of Justice
United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt
Southern District of Iowa

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

COUNCIL BLUFFS MAN SENTENCED ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES
     Council Bluffs, IA - On July 9, 2010, Matthew Joseph Collins, age 21, of Council
Bluffs was sentenced to a term of 235 months imprisonment upon his conviction for
Attempted Distribution of Child Pornography and Receipt of Child Pornography, announced United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt. United States District Court
Judge James E. Gritzner also ordered Collins to serve a five-year term of supervised release and be placed on the Sex Offender Registry upon his release from prison, and pay an assessment of $200 to the Crime Victims Fund.
     Collins was found guilty by a Council Bluffs jury on March 17, 2010. The case arose out of an investigation that revealed Collins downloaded and attempted to distribute videos as well as more than 300 images of child pornography on his computers and external hard drive. Trial testimony also revealed that Collins transported a minor female to Omaha, Nebraska in order to take sexually explicit photographs of the victim.
     United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt said that tough federal laws dealing with the sexual exploitation of minors were designed for internet sexual predators.
Klinefeldt further added that while the internet has many practical uses, it is also a place where sexual predators lurk and attempt to sexually exploit children. He encouraged concerned citizens to visit the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children website at www.iaicac.org for more information on internet safety.
     This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa. This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security,
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
     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 United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe
Childhood marshal's 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.gov.