KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Bonner Springs, Kansas, man pleaded guilty to sexual acts with a child and creating child pornography, the United States Attorney's Office announced Tuesday.
Joshua Courtney, 35, faces a maximum potential penalty of up to 140 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of child exploitation and four counts possession of child pornography.
Agents with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified dozens of pornographic photos in Courtney's Google photos after receiving cybertips from Google, Snapchat and Dropbox, the attorney's office says. Some of the images were later identified to be taken of a 10-year-old child.
According to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Courtney admitted to taking the images himself, filming himself involved in sexual acts with the child, distributing the photos and videos to others and receiving child pornography on his cell phone.
Courtney's sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 1. The maximum penalty is 30 years per count of child exploitation and 20 years per county of child pornography — totaling a maximum potential penalty of 140 years.
"The Secret Service is proud of the effective partnerships it maintains with the Kansas Bureau of Investigations, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the United States Attorney's Office, whose tireless efforts were instrumental in seeing justice served in this case," said Brandon Bridgeforth, special agent in charge with the Kansas City FBI field office. "We can think of no greater outcome than protecting our children from predators such as Joshua Courtney."
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