SIOUX CITY – This Northern Iowa man who received hundreds of images of child pornography was sentenced to 97 months in prison on January 9, 2026, in federal court in Sioux City.
Wesley Ham (pictured at top), 32, from Arthur, Iowa, pled guilty on August 20, 2025, to receipt of child pornography. At the plea and sentencing hearings, evidence showed that between March 2022, and September 2023, Ham received and possessed more than 94 images and 79 videos of child pornography. A forensic review of Ham’s computer and phone showed he possessed 370 images and 99 videos of child pornography, some of which included infants and toddlers as well as sadistic and masochistic conduct. Ham admitted to receiving and possessing child pornography. Ham also admitted to distributing child pornography in a state of Iowa case in 2022. In connection with his 2022 case, Ham admitted to lingering around coffee shops and other public spaces in attempts to generate encounters with minor children and admitted to being on bike trails in residential areas in hopes of finding people in their houses to secretly watch them.
Sentencing was held before United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand. Ham was sentenced to 97 months’ imprisonment and must serve a 5-year term of supervised release following imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. Ham must also pay $10,500 in restitution to the victims in this case. Ham remains in custody of the United States Marshal until he can be transported to a federal prison.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
The case was investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (Cyber Crime Bureau) and the Ida County Sheriff’s Office and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kraig R. Hamit.