Man sentenced to 27 years in prison for producing child porn

SEATTLE – The U.S. Justice Department says a former Des Moines, Washington, man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for producing and possessing images of child pornography.

U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes said in a news release that 58-year-old Robert Thorson was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle. In addition to prison time, he was sentenced to lifetime supervised release.

Thorson was convicted after a February trial.

He was arrested in May 2016 after his girlfriend called Des Moines police to report finding sexually explicit images of children on Thorson’s phone.

Hayes said Thorson sought relationships with women so he could molest their children and then threatened them from jail to try and get charges dropped. Thorson’s electronic devices had 22 videos and 40 images of child rape, Hayes said.