Idaho Falls man sentenced to 30 years after pleading guilty to having explicit videos of children
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IDAHO FALLS — A 43-year-old man was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to felony possession of child sexually exploitative material charges on Wednesday morning.
Nathan J. Selig was originally charged with six felony counts of having sexually exploitative materials of children, but on Feb. 6, he accepted a plea agreement to plead guilty to three counts.
Court documents detail that in June, a cybertip was filed by Microsoft Bing Images regarding a file containing child sexual abuse material that had been uploaded and was intended to find similar images.
The tip contained an internet protocol address to a home in Idaho Falls, where Selig lives, and he was arrested in August.
The document states that a computer was seized, where investigators had found six videos of explicit material in folders labeled “Nate’s Gaming PC” and “PedoDreams.”
District Judge Brendon Taylor sentenced Selig to five years fixed and five years indeterminate for the first count. For counts two and three, Taylor gave Selig an indeterminate sentence of 10 years.
Each count will run consecutively.
He will also be required to register as a sex offender.
Inconsistent and allegedly illiterate
Deputy Attorney General James Haws, representing the state, spoke about presentence investigation and psychosexual reports. Haws said that Selig’s actions were inconsistent.
The story that Selig told investigators was that he had found a CD in a park and found the explicit material.
“That story, Your Honor, is frankly unbelievable. It makes no sense. It is not based on facts, and it appears to be a complete fabrication,” Haws said.
Due to the complex nature of operating BitTorrent and the literacy required, Haws disputed the reports’ assertion that Selig was illiterate.
During the investigation, Haws said that Selig had used Bing to find similar images of a 5-year-old girl being sexually abused. Later, using BitTorrent to find and download explicit videos, which were the ones found on his computer during his August arrest.
Overall, 19 devices were taken at the time of Selig’s arrest, where 2,911 files were found that contained 189 children.
From those victims, Haws discussed that one of the children in those explicit materials, named Angela, had provided a victim impact statement. Haws said Angela is not the child’s real name, but the name she’s called in the explicit material.
In her first line, the victim said, “People like me don’t exist.”
Haws continued to read Angela’s statement, where she said she faced trauma from her abuse, and she didn’t know who had seen those materials or was a threat.
“Thank goodness we have moved on as a society and recognize these as not pixels on a page anymore. These are lives that have been destroyed as such,” Haws said.
He recommended a 25-year sentence, with five of those years to be served in prison.
Defense recommendation
Selig’s attorney, Kelly Mallard, told the court his recommendation would be for Selig to serve three years in prison, followed by 17 years of supervision.
He references that in Selig’s reports, which outlined the need for him to have a lengthy period of supervision to get help and support. He also added that this was Selig’s only felony charge.
Other portions of the report that Mallard discussed were Selig’s background, where he was adopted, significant functional deficits and social isolation.
Regarding the illiteracy claim, Mallard said that much of the time he and others have spent with him has been working with him on filling out the reports and paperwork.
Overall, Mallard said that Selig understood the need for punishment and the need for consequences for what he had done. In the lead-up to sentencing, Selig has taken steps to accept responsibility, Mallard said.
Judge’s statement
Before being sentenced, Selig was allowed to give a statement but chose not to.
Judge Taylor said that, under Idaho code, an individual’s sentencing, rehabilitation, and probation are often the first to be considered.
However, some factors need to be addressed to protect society, which takes precedence. He said that for this case, he sees a need to protect society.
Discussing the presentence investigation and the psychosexual evaluation, Selig was placed in the moderate level to reoffend, but was in the high-risk category on the evaluation.
The protection of society stems from the victims’ impact statements regarding the explicit content found on Selig’s devices.
Aside from the one described by the prosecutor, Taylor spoke on how there were more victims whose videos were seen in the three videos in which Selig pleaded guilty to.
Taylor said there were hundreds of specific individuals whose abuse was documented in a collage-style video.
One of the victims, whose impact statement was read by Taylor, said she had a right to be notified when the videos of her abuse were viewed. Since 2020, there have been over 22,000 notifications of her video being spread.
In another statement from a victim’s mother, the mother stated that her daughter will always become a victim whenever a monster finds and views the explicit content.
“Our daughter has a lifelong sentence of victimization and will need help to recover from the trauma,” Taylor read from the mother’s victim impact statement.
Taylor said the notion that Selig happened to find a CD filled with child sexual abuse material differs from the reality of the evidence found. That evidence states that Selig had searched for this content, downloaded them and stored them in easy-to-find folders, Taylor said.