(NIT photo)
CEDAR RAPIDS — A Northern Iowa child predator who solicited abuse images from children online and approached an undercover officer posing as a child’s mother has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
Steven William Acklin (pictured at top), 29, formerly of Waterloo, received the sentence September 22 after pleading guilty March 23 to sexual exploitation of children and receipt of child pornography.
Chief U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams imposed the 360-month prison term, ordered Acklin to pay $15,000 in restitution and added 10 years of supervised release following his incarceration.
There is no parole in the federal prison system.
Undercover contact preceded months of online exploitation
Information presented at sentencing traced Acklin’s conduct to the fall of 2023, when he was living in Waterloo.
Federal prosecutors said Acklin contacted an undercover police officer who was posing as the mother of a 12-year-old child. He requested nude photographs of the purported child.
Between January and September 2024, Acklin contacted multiple children online and asked them to produce and send sexually explicit images of themselves. Some of the children complied, prosecutors said.
His conduct also included repeatedly distributing child sexual abuse material and receiving and possessing illegal images, including material depicting infants and severe abuse.
Acklin’s guilty plea established his convictions for sexual exploitation of children and receipt of child pornography. The additional conduct was described in the evidence presented at sentencing.
The case bears similarities to another federal prosecution NIT covered earlier this year, when a Cedar Rapids man received 25 years in prison after persuading minors online to produce abuse images.
Bremer County custody record follows sentencing
The federal sentencing announcement said Acklin remained in U.S. Marshals custody while awaiting transportation to a federal prison.
A September 22 custody record listed him at the Bremer County Jail, with a booking time of 8:12 p.m. and an in-custody status update at 8:33 p.m.
That entry documents his jail placement following sentencing; it does not identify his eventual federal prison destination.
Acklin’s sentence follows other substantial child-exploitation penalties in the region, including a separate 25-year state prison sentence imposed on a Fort Dodge man for sexually exploiting a minor.
The FBI investigated Acklin’s case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Devra T. Hake prosecuted it.
The prosecution was brought through Project Safe Childhood, a Justice Department initiative that coordinates federal, state and local efforts to investigate child sexual exploitation, prosecute offenders and identify and protect victims.
Sentencing date and prosecution details verified against the federal announcement. (United States Department of Justice)