FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) — A Springdale man was sentenced Thursday (Dec. 7) to six years in federal prison followed by 15 years of supervised release for downloading child pornography.
Jeremy McGrew, 36, told investigators he’d been viewing child pornography for 14 years, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
McGrew’s public defender, Anna M. Williams, had asked U.S. District Judge Tim Brooks for the mandatory minimum sentence of five years, citing McGrew’s isolated child hood that included the early death of his mother and a neglectful father.
McGrew’s childhood friend wrote a letter to the court about McGrew’s rough childhood, saying his father often kept McGrew inside their home, forced him to drop out of school around fifth grade and failed to adequately raise him.
McGrew’s attorney argued he was “emotionally stunted,” and while that didn’t excuse his crime, his concepts of right and wrong were skewed by his childhood.
In December, Homeland Security Investigations agents discovered a local computer uploading several files of child pornography to the eMule network, a peer-to-peer file sharing network.
Agents partially downloaded three sexually explicit videos involving minors and later traced the computer’s IP address to McGrew’s home on Don Tyson Parkway, according to court documents.
A federal grand jury indicted McGrew in June and he pleaded guilty in August.
HSI is a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that investigates national security issues, including cybercrime.
The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) assisted in the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Driver prosecuted the case for the United States.
