Fort Dodge Man Charged With Federal Child Pornography Offenses

Brian Skou, age 26, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, has been indicted on federal child pornography charges. The charges are contained in an Indictment unsealed June 19, 2013, in United States District Court in Sioux City.

The Indictment alleges that, between 2007 and 2012, Skou received and possessed child pornography.

If convicted on all charges, Skou faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of 40 years’ imprisonment, $750,000 in fines, a $300 special assessment, and at least 5 years and up to life on supervised release following any imprisonment.

Skou appeared on June 19, 2013, in federal court in Sioux City and was released on bond. Skou’s next appearance for trial is set for August 5, 2013.

As with any criminal case, a charge is merely an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark Tremmel and was investigated by the Webster County Sheriff’s Office and the Fort Dodge Police Department.

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 www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 13-3019.