Florida youth sentenced to 70 years in jail for child exploitation

A 23-year-old from southern Florida (USA) was sentenced this Thursday to spend 70 years in prison for child exploitation and for producing, distributing and possessing child pornography, the Prosecutor’s Office reported.

Nikolas CookThe 23-year-old from Stuart, in southeastern Martin County Florida, will face 840 months in prison and supervised release for life, federal Judge K. Michael Moore ruled.

According to a statement from the Public Ministry, the sentence was imposed by the judge after considering the Sentencing Guidelines for USA “And other legal factors”.

According to court documents cited by the Prosecutor’s Office, on September 10, 2020, Cook communicated with other people in a social media group created for those interested in child sexual abuse material.

While participating in the chat group, Cook produced and distributed multiple pornographic images of a three-year-old girl, the statement added.

Twelve hours later, an investigation led specialized agents to Cook’s residence in Stuart.

There they found electronic devices containing multiple sexually explicit images and videos of underage children being sexually abused, for which Cook was arrested on charges.

When he was still 22 years old, Cook was arrested and charged on December 8, 2020 with five felonies of sexual assault.

Today’s sentence was announced by the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Juan Antonio González, and the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Miami, George L. Piro.

This case was presented as part of the Safe Childhood Project (PSC), a national initiative launched in May 2006 by the US Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, the statement said.