FORT SMITH - A Polk County man was sentenced in federal court Thursday to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty last year to receiving images of child pornography, a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Christopher Cottman, 29, was arrested July 8, 2012, in Polk County on a state warrant, the release said. After he gave permission for investigators to search his cellphone, they found several images and videos of child pornography.
One image, the subject of the charge to which Cottman pleaded, involved a 3-year-old girl.
When questioned about the images, according to the U.S. attorney’s news release, Cottman admitted exchanging child pornography with a group of individuals he met on the Internet.
U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge commented in the news release that the age of the youngest child depicted in the images was “incomprehensible and extremely disturbing” and that prosecuting such cases remained a high priority in his office.
The case was filed as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative started in 2006 to combat the growth in child sexual exploitation and abuse, the release said.
Arkansas, Pages 19 on 02/21/2014