Rapid City Man Sentenced to Over 10 Years in Federal Prison for Receiving Child Pornography
Hayden Sengua, 26, was sentenced to 10 years and one month in federal prison after pleading guilty to receipt of child pornography.
2 reports on this incident · first at Aug 25, 2026, 12:21 p.m. ET
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Aug 25, 2026, 12:21 p.m. ETFirst report
Rapid City Man Sentenced to Over 10 Years for Receiving Child Pornography
A Rapid City, South Dakota, man was sentenced on August 24, 2026, to 10 years and one month in federal prison for receiving child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Dakota announced on August 25, 2026.
Hayden Sengua, 26, pleaded guilty on January 21, 2026, to one count of receipt of child pornography. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, beginning in 2018 and continuing into January 2025, Sengua knowingly downloaded image and video files containing sexually explicit visual depictions of young children, saving them on his cell phone, in his Google account, and on an external hard drive. He possessed approximately 15,000 total media files depicting child sexual abuse, including imagery of infants and toddlers and bondage and torture of minors. Sengua also used a virtual machine to attempt to hide his collection.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Camela C. Theeler ordered five years of supervised release, $15,685 in restitution, a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund, and forfeiture of Sengua's external hard drive and two cellular phones. Sengua was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
The case was investigated by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation's Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the Pennington County Sheriff's Office, and prosecuted by former Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Knox and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn N. Rich. It was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
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- Version 125 Aug 2026, 16:22current
First published.
- Version 125 Aug 2026, 16:21current
First published.
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