Man appears in court after being charged with sexual exploitation of a child
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IDAHO FALLS – A man charged with multiple counts of felony possession or access of child sexually exploitative material appeared in court after being arrested in May.
Jacob David Clinger, 26, pleaded not guilty on June 28 after the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit executed a search warrant at his Idaho Falls home, leading to his arrest.
The ICAC found multiple videos on Clinger’s Discord account of children ranging from infancy to 3 years old being sexually abused. Discord is a social platform that gives users the ability to communicate as part of communities called “servers.”
Clinger was booked into the Bonneville County jail with his bond set at $75,000.
According to court documents, detectives from the Bonneville County Sheriff’s office were also able to obtain messages from a Google account between Clinger and another user “talking about sharing explicit videos of children younger than 10 years old.”
Detectives later interviewed Clinger, where he admitted to joining “pornographic chat rooms”, and that the youngest children he had seen on the internet were babies. Investigators found images and video on Clinger’s phone of newborn babies and infants being sexually abused.
If convicted, Clinger could serve 10 years in prison for each charge, adding up to 40 years for all four counts.
The jury trial is set for October 31.
Anyone with information regarding the exploitation of children is encouraged to contact local police, the Attorney General’s ICAC Unit at (208) 947-8700, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.
Parents, educators and law enforcement officials can find more information and helpful resources at the ICAC website, ICACIdaho.org.