Billy Wayne Cobb, 44, of Water Valley, is going to prison for child exploitation, announced Attorney General Jim Hood.

Cobb pleaded guilty Tuesday before Yalobusha Circuit Court Judge Smith Murphey to one count of child exploitation.

Judge Murphey sentenced Cobb to 20 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections with five years to serve, five years of post-release supervision and 10 years of unsupervised probation. Cobb was ordered to pay $2,000 to the Attorney General’s Office for investigative costs and expenses and a $1,000 assessment to the children’s trust fund.  He must also register as a sex offender upon his release from imprisonment.

“Our investigation uncovered that this defendant downloaded hundreds of images and videos of child pornography from the Internet using a file sharing network and then placed them on an external hard drive hidden behind a desk in his basement,” Hood said. “We will continue to put these perverts behind bars and we appreciate Judge Murphey for doing that in this case.”

The case was investigated by the Attorney General’s Cyber Crime Unit/Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and prosecuted by Special Assistant Attorney General Brandon Ogburn.