CEDAR RAPIDS – An Iowa man who distributed child pornography to multiple minors including an autistic child was sentenced December 20, 2023, to more than seventeen years in federal prison.
Benjamin Mockmore, age 37, from Wilton, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 4, 2023 guilty plea to one count of distribution of child pornography.
Information presented at the sentencing hearing and in a plea agreement showed that in 2021 and 2022 Mockmore had online sexual communications with multiple minors. During some of the conversations, Mockmore sent images and videos of child pornography to the minors. One of the minors with whom Mockmore communicated was a 15‑year‑old autistic girl, from whom Mockmore had requested “nudes.” Mockmore also sent naked pictures of himself to multiple minors, including to the 15‑year‑old autistic girl. In March 2022, an adult female posing as a 12‑year‑old girl from Wilton communicated with Mockmore. During the conversations Mockmore stated that he wanted to have sex with the 12‑year‑old and that he would be home alone on March 20, 2022. The adult woman confronted Mockmore on March 19, 2022, at which time Mockmore admitted that he had sent a picture of his penis to the person he believed to be the 12‑year‑old. Mockmore also offered the woman money not to report him to law enforcement.
Four days after his encounter with the adult woman in Wilton, Mockmore had an online conversation with another adult woman who was posing as a 13‑year‑old girl. Mockmore sent that person a photograph of his penis and requested that the girl send him a photograph of herself in the shower. A search of Mockmore’s residence on March 29, 2022, resulted in the seizure of two of Mockmore’s cellular phones. Searches of those phones revealed 181 images and 50 videos of child pornography, and 61 online conversations during which Mockmore sent child pornography to another person. Over 30 of the people to whom Mockmore sent child pornography had represented themselves to be juveniles.
Mockmore was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Mockmore was sentenced to 210 months’ imprisonment. He was ordered to make $9,000 in restitution. He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Mockmore is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was investigated by the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and the Shelby County, Alabama, Sheriff’s Office, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Dan Chatham and Jason Norwood.
