A Portland man who was previously convicted for the possession of child pornography has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for enticing a minor, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine announced Wednesday.
U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Torresen sentenced 36-year-old Joshua Decker to 144 months in prison, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
Decker previously pleaded guilty to the charges of enticing a minor and possessing child sexual abuse material on July 3, 2024.
According to court records, Decker encountered the 16-year-old victim on an online chat forum in December 2022, and began regularly communicating with the victim despite knowing that the victim was a minor.
Prosecutors said that in April 2023, the conversations between Decker and the minor victim became graphic and sexual, and that Decker discussed travelling to meet the victim.
In July 2023, Portland Police executed a search warrant on Decker’s vehicle and person, recovering a tablet that contained child sexual abuse material.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Decker was previously convicted in Androscoggin County Criminal Court in 2018 for possessing sexually explicit material of a minor under 12.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with assistance from the Portland Police Department.
0 Comments