A Nampa man will spend at least the next eighteen years in prison for nine felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child. Peter Cash, 40, was sentenced in Canyon County today to a total of forty years in prison, with eighteen fixed and 22 years indeterminate.
Judge Davis VanderVelde also ordered Cash to register a sex offender, submit a DNA sample to the Idaho Database, and have no contact with all minor children for the duration of the sentence. Cash was also ordered to pay court costs and reimbursement costs for his public defender and psycho-sexual evaluation.
Cash was arrested in May after the Idaho Attorney General’s Office received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Cash had been downloading images and videos depicting child pornography.
“Following the tip, detectives with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force executed a search warrant on Cash’s home and located more than 40 videos and hundreds of images of sexually explicit materials on both his home computer and cell phone,” said Canyon County spokesman Joe Decker. “The majority of the videos and images showed prepubescent children, many of which were as young as two or three years old.”
Cash told detectives he would inappropriately touch himself while viewing images he downloaded. He also admitted that he was preparing to move to Canada. “Further investigation revealed evidence he was moving there to engage in sexual intercourse with a woman and her four-year-old son,” Decker stated.
Detectives recovered numerous e-mail communications between Cash and other individuals where they discussed having sex with young children and sharing videos and images of child pornography, Decker added.
During sentencing, Judge VanderVelde told Cash, “The materials you admitted to keeping are sickening, repugnant and disgusting. The children in the videos are victims of disgusting abuse and these children will be victimized as long as these materials exist.”
“This is one of the most disturbing cases of child pornography that I have come across in my career as a prosecutor,” said County Prosecutor Bryan Taylor. “Mr. Cash, who was diagnosed with pedophilia, is a tremendous danger to the community given his attraction to prepubescent children and his plan to sexually abuse a child. Judge VanderVelde’s sentence ensures those most vulnerable in our community, children, are protected for years to come.”
