A Valmeyer man was sentenced last week to more than 12 years in prison on federal child pornography charges.

Alan L. Mitchell, 52, of Valmeyer, entered a guilty plea March 28 in federal district court on charges of distribution of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois Stephen R. Wigginton said Mitchell was sentenced July 15 to 151 months in federal prison, to be followed by a five-year term of supervised release. 

Mitchell was ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution to one of the victims depicted in his collection of child porn, and the forfeiture of the computers used to commit the charged offenses was ordered.

Court information states that on Sept. 6, 2012, an undercover agent assigned to the U.S. Secret Service Southern Illinois Cybercrime Unit searched a peer-to-peer file sharing network and was able to download child porn movies from Mitchell’s computer.

Officers obtained a federal search warrant for Mitchell’s Valmeyer home and executed it on Oct. 23, 2012. Mitchell, who resided in the basement of the home, made a statement to agents indicating he had knowingly and intentionally downloaded child porn from a peer-to-peer network, and he realized he was also sharing child porn with other users.

In all, 369 videos and 71 images containing child porn were seized on a hard disk drive and two laptop computers belonging to Mitchell.

“I commend the dedicated efforts of law enforcement officers who must regularly subject themselves to this depraved material as they search computers with immense storage capacity for evidence,” Wigginton stated in a news release.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service Southern Illinois Cybercrime Unit and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne M. Garrison.

Prior to residing in Valmeyer, records indicate Mitchell lived in Collinsville.