WHITLEY COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) - A Columbia City man and convicted sex offender was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years in prison.

A judge in U.S. District Court handed 38-year-old Joel J. McClure 300 months in prison for the count of sexual exploitation of children, and a consecutive term of 120 months for committing that offense while already being a registered sex offender. After his prison time, he's ordered to five years of supervised release.

McClure was first convicted of a similar offense in Texas, according to the press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. In Whitley County, investigators determined McClure solicited a 14-year-old girl to produce and send him child sexual abuse material, which he then shared with others on the internet, according to court documents in the case. H

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