Davenport, IA – The U-S Attorney’s Office reports a northeast Iowa man, 30-year-old Paul John McNicol, was sentenced on November 30, 2022, to 216 months (18-years) in prison, for receiving child pornography. McNicol, who is from LeClaire, was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution and a $5,000 special assessment under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. Following his imprisonment, McNicol was ordered to serve 10 years of supervised release.

Law enforcement identified McNicol after he uploaded sexually explicit images of minors to the social media program, KIK. Law enforcement executed a search warrant at McNicol’s residence and seized electronic devices, on which they located numerous images and videos depicting child pornography. McNicol was required to register as a sex offender following his 2014 Illinois convictions for Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse and Criminal Sexual Abuse.

The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nationwide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children. Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.