SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Two Iowa men have been sentenced to prison on separate charges of child pornography.

Bryan Ross, 26, of Ellsworth, Iowa, was convicted for producing and distributing child pornography, according to a release from the Northern District of Iowa of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

At the sentencing hearings, evidence was presented that harassed and coerced minors to take explicit photos and videos of themselves and send them to Ross via Snapchat and Facebook. In some cases, Ross did receive these explicit images and in other cases, he attempted to receive them.

Ross was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison and another eight years on supervised release. He will also have to pay $18,649 in restitution to his victims and a $1,000 fine.

Brandon Manning, 41, of Mason City, was found guilty by a jury in November 2022 on two
counts of possession of child pornography.

Evidence presented at trial and sentencing showed Manning had over 150,000 depictions of child pornography after a jury deliberated for four hours, the release said.

Some of the images included that of children under the age of 12, as young as infants, on his cellphone and on an external hard drive which he attempted to destroy.

A judge sentenced Manning to 20 years in prison and to pay $118,000 in restitution to his victims. Once he is released Manning will have to spend an additional 5 years in supervised release.

There is no parole in either case because parole is not part of the federal system.

Both men were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Sioux City. The cases were prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to use local, state and national resources to combat child exploitation. The program achieves its goal by locating, apprehending and prosecuting those who commit crimes against children.