Utah County man sentenced by federal, Utah courts for crimes against children

Robert Edwin Francis. Photo: Utah County

LEHI, Utah, Jan. 26, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — A Lehi man has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison and 10 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.

As part of a plea deal, Robert Edwin Francis, who turned 42 today, pleaded guilty to requesting sexually explicit images from a Yahoo account in the name of Clark_Bueno.

The case against Francis was the result of an investigation of Nathan Clark Ward, a Bountiful OB-GYN arrested on 11 felony charges, which included aggravated sexual abuse of a child and exploitation of a minor, according to the Utah Office of the Attorney General.

Investigators say Ward used the Yahoo screen name Clark_Bueno to distribute pornography.

Francis’ plea statement read, in part: “I received images in the form of live video chat depicting a man sexually abusing a child. I admit that I engaged in sexually explicit conduct involving children via an on-line social network.”

Francis also confessed to owning between 150 and 300 images of child pornography.

In a separate case, Francis was sentenced in Utah’s Fourth Judicial District Court this week after being charged with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and two counts of forcible sexual abuse. As part of a plea deal, Francis pleaded guilty to one count of forcible sexual abuse, and the other three charges were dismissed.

In the Utah state court, Francis was sentenced to five years to life in prison, to run concurrently with the federal sentence.

1 COMMENT

  1. Excuse me while I throw up!. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH OUR SYSTEM? Did the District Attorney or the Judge read what I just read? This pathetic wasted piece of human feces admitted to searching the web for a live video of another man RAPING A CHILD!! Sugarcoat or word it any way you choose but that is exactly what he did. Abd the list goes on and on and on. Why the hell did he get ANY KIND OF A DEAL? You dont bargain with the devil. You dont make deals with monsters. How many other children has he harmed? HOW MANY!!? Give me a f*****g break!! 12 years? Puhleezz you spineless bastards ought to be ashamed to call yourselves law enforcement. Oh excuse me did my language offend you? TOO BAD!! You want to see offended? Try sitting in a room with the CHILD of one of his victims. A precious child that has been viciously RAPED AND FILMED for this cockroaches sadistic pleasure. Your job is to prosecute these animals. Prosecute and remove them from society so they can never EVER hurt another living soul. Well thanks for nothing. Good job boys. Good job.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here