By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – A Norco man who pleaded guilty in April to possession of child pornography now faces a charge of sexual exploitation of children after authorities say he took sexually explicit pictures of a child in his care and distributed the images to others.

Jason Long, 35, was charged Thursday in a one-count bill of information for the sexual exploitation of children, according to a release from U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. The charge comes six months after Long pleaded guilty to using peer-to-peer file sharing programs to download approximately 232 pictures and 169 videos of children victimized. Evidence indicated that Long searched for images depicting minors, some as young as six, engaged in specific types of conduct to download, according to authorities.

The charges from Thursday stem from an investigation into Long’s activity going back between February 2006 and November 2007, when Long permitted a child under his care to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing pictures and video. The images were then sent from Oklahoma to other locations, including the United Kingdom.

Letten’s office denied to release the relationship between Long and the child and also withheld the child’s age in order to protect the victim.

If convicted, Long faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Long also faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, a life term of supervised release and a $250,000 fine for his guilty plea to the receiving child pornography charge. He also can be required to register as a sex offender.

Long is scheduled to be sentenced in that case this morning at 9 a.m.

Special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case, which was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The program marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and assists in identifying and rescuing victims.