Mar. 13—An Austin man charged with possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) was sentenced Thursday to probation after being convicted on two of the three charges he was facing.
Mark Edward Hanson, 64, of Austin was sentenced in Mower County District Court to five years supervised probation for each of the two charges and was fined $50.
He has a long list of conditions he will need to follow and a violation of those conditions could result in 36 and 24 months in prison respectively for the two charges.
A third count was dismissed.
The sentencing comes after a plea agreement in September of last year in which Hanson agreed to plead guilty to the two charges with the third to be dismissed.
According to the court complaint, Hanson was arrested in August of 2024 following a lengthy investigation that started in May 2024 when a detective with the Austin Police Department was alerted by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension of a Minnesota Internet Crime against Children report.
The report indicated that Google had informed the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children that one of their users had uploaded 27 files containing suspected CSAM. Google provided information including the name “Mark Hanson,” the user’s phone number and date of birth.
Through subpoenas requested by the BCA, the detective was able to track the report to Hanson and was able to confirm that three of the suspected files uploaded contained CSAM.
After further investigation, Hanson was questioned on Aug. 30, 2024, and when asked claimed that he saw CSAM from time to time, but cycled past it.
However, when asked if he searched Google for pornography, Hanson declined to speak any further.
