SALT LAKE CITY — A Park City man was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in federal prison after being found guilty of possessing, receiving and distributing child pornography.
Michael Loren Dunn, 43, an Iraqi war veteran, was found guilty of the charges after a week-long trial in the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.
Dunn will also be required to pay more than $500,000 in restitution to a female victim, who is now 21 years old.
The victim was raped and sexually assaulted as a child. The acts were photographed and filmed according to court documents. The former soldier downloaded some of those images and videos and shared them.
Dunn, who works in the computer industry, placed his child pornography files into encrypted containers that only he could access, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Federal prosecutors submitted evidence at the trial that child porn was received and shared by Dunn — was recovered from three different computers owned by the defendant, including files recovered from the deleted space on the computers.
Dunn claimed he downloaded the child porn files by accident, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office provided evidence that showed Dunn had repeatedly downloaded the files and repeatedly shared them.
Evidence also showed that the majority of the files searched for contained terms indicative of child porn content, the release stated.
“Our office remains committed to protecting children in Utah and vigorously prosecuting those who exploit them through the criminal conduct involved in this case,” said U.S. Attorney David B. Barlow.
Dunn will also be placed on supervised release for 25 years when he finishes his prison sentence.
