DEMING, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – A Deming man was sentenced in U.S. District Court on Tuesday for having explicit images of children.

Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller says 47-year-old Robert Howell Jr. will spend just over 13 years in prison for possession of child sexual abuse material.

Police from a foreign country alerted Homeland Security in 2019 that an IP address tracked to Howell Jr.’s home had accessed a website containing the graphic content.

Federal agents executed a search warrant on his home in 2020 and seized devices that contained over 90,000 files depicting sexual abuse of children.

The judge noted the extreme quantity and violent nature of the material in handing down the sentence.

Howell Jr. has to pay over $140,000 in restitution to nearly 50 child victims who were exploited in the material.

He will also be on twenty years of supervised release after his prison term is up.