On a summer day in 2023, Hein Fourie of Adrian loaned his cell phone to an acquaintance in Idaho.
Now, Fourie will spend more than five years in federal prison for what was found on that phone.
Fourie, 26, pleaded guilty to possession of child sex abuse material and on Thursday, Oct. 3, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison and fined $15,000. The proceedings were in U.S. District Court in Boise.
In the court record documenting his plea agreement, prosecutors described how Fourie loaned an old cell phone to man whose own phone was broken.
“He saw child pornography” on the phone and turned the phone and another used by Fourie over to police, the plea agreement said.
Fourie admitted to detectives with the Wilder Police Department that the phone was his and he had used it in 2022 while staying occasionally in Greenleaf, Idaho. Fourie “admitted he used the cellphone to receive child pornography from the Telegram application,” the court filing said.
Investigators recovered 300 files of such pornography.
A federal grand jury indicted Fourie in October 2023 and he was arrested the following month in Nebraska, according to court records. The case was investigated by the federal Homeland Security Investigations with help from the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office.
“This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse,” according to a statement from Idaho U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit.
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