Lincoln man sentenced to 7 years for child porn charges

LINCOLN, Neb. -- On Tuesday, a 69-year-old Lincoln man has been sentenced to seven years in prison for obtaining child pornography.

The U.S. Attorney announced that Michael Dale Bouwens was sentenced in Lincoln by the Senior U.S. District Judge for getting child porn. 

Bouwens was sentenced to 84 months in prison and will have to serve 10 years on supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. 

After Bouwens serves his sentence, he will be required to register as a sex offender.

Court documents said that in May 2021, law enforcement reviewed a cybertip with reference to suspected child porn.

The IP address on the cybertip was traced back to Bouwen's home in Lincoln.

Authorities executed a search warrant of Bouwen's home, and he was interviewed by law enforcement.

Bouwen's admitted that he had an interest in child porn, and used his laptop to search for it online. 

According to officials, he had last downloaded child porn a couple days before he was interviewed.

A forensic review of several devices that authorities seized from Bouwen's home contained about 19,666 files that qualify as child porn as well as 262 videos.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.