MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota man was sentenced Thursday to five years in federal prison for distributing child pornography through online chatrooms.
Joshua Noble, 39, was charged by felony information on April 17, 2017, and pleaded guilty on June 29, 2013, to one count of distributing child pornography. He was also sentenced to 10 year term of supervised release, $26,000 in restitution to the victims, and he must pay a $5,000 special assessment to the Domestic Trafficking Victims Fund.
According to the defendant’s guilty plea and documents filed in court, Noble was a substitute teacher in Fergus Falls, Minn., for about 15 years. On March 4, 2016, undercover law enforcement officers observed Noble using an internet-based messaging service called Chatstep.com to obtain and distribute images depicting the sexual abuse of children. Noble possessed at least 244 such images, including depictions of prepubescent children under 12 years of age and infants and toddlers.
