Former school convict in child pornography case

FARGO, ND (Valley News Live) – A man accused of possessing child pornography has been sentenced in Cass County Court.

Joshua Bowman was arrested on Monday, September 11, 2023 for possession of prohibited material, which court documents revealed were child pornography videos. He pleaded guilty and was convicted on October 14, 2024, of contributing to the deprivation or delinquency of a minor.

A judge sentenced Bowman to 70 days in jail, with credit for the 60 days he had already served. He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised probation.

According to court documents, on July 10, 2022, a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children revealed a report from Snapchat about suspicious activity found on their platform.

Snapchat reported that a user saved, shared or uploaded a file containing suspected child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on July 9, 2022. Snapchat provided the file, which contained a one-minute video of an adult man sexually assaulting a boy, who the detective said was between 4 and 6 years old.

Snapchat provided suspicious information, which was traced back to Bowman.

Court documents show that when the case was transferred to the North Dakota ICAC, the detective discovered Bowman was exchanging several messages with other Snapchat users, using Mega NZ accounts or files. Mega NZ is a cloud storage company often found in CSAM cases because the files are stored in encrypted form.

At one point, a Snapchat chat thread indicates Bowman talking about a child moving with him, saying, “Well, he moved so I can’t right now,” and one person responded, “Aw, how are you gonna watch the videos to make? someone else or.”

Court documents show the detective obtained a search warrant for Bowman’s home. The detective conducted surveillance outside Bowman’s apartment and at Trinity Elementary School.

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