Red Wing man sentenced to 135 months for child porn

A Red Wing man was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to 135 months in prison for receiving child pornography.

Ronald Lee Rainwater, 42, pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography before U.S. District Court Judge David S. Doty on April 6. Because the federal criminal justice system does not have parole, Rainwater will spend virtually his entire sentence behind bars.

In his plea agreement, Rainwater admitted that on or about Jan. 4, 2009, he received a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Rainwater also admitted to possessing at least 14,000 photographs and approximately 2,600 videos containing similar depictions. Some of the images and videos included sadistic or masochistic material.

Authorities found the pornographic material on Rainwater’s computer and external hard drive, both of which were seized from the bedroom of his residence during the execution of a search warrant n Aug. 12, 2009.

German federal police originally notified U.S. authorities about Rainwater after he was identified during an investigation of a file-sharing website that featured pornography.