An Arthur man was sentenced last week to just over eight years in federal prison following his conviction in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa for possessing child pornography. According to the District Attorney General’s Office, 32-year-old Wesley Ham pled guilty in August following a joint investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) Cyber Crime Bureau and the Ida County Sheriff’s Office, which found he had possessed 94 images and 79 videos depicting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) between March 2022 and September 2023. Further investigation discovered another 450+ images and videos on his phone and computer, some of which included infants and toddlers. Ham had previously been convicted in Ida County District Court in 2023 on separate child pornography charges. Authorities note Ham also has a history of trying to manufacture encounters with minors by lingering around public spaces or bike trails. Ham was sentenced by a federal judge on Friday to serve 97 months in prison, and there is no parole in the federal system. Additionally, Ham must serve five years of supervised release following his incarceration and pay $10,500 in victim restitution. Ham remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending transportation to a facility to begin serving his sentence.
