A Lawrence County man has been sentenced to 300 years in federal prison for committing multiple child sexual exploitation crimes.

David Edward Collier, II, 47, of Moulton pleaded guilty to 13 charges in January.

He was charged with four counts of sexual exploitation of children, eight counts of transportation of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Liles C. Burke passed the sentence of 3,600 months.

According to court documents, Collier corresponded with individuals online regarding his desires to expose and sexually exploit children.

From January 2017 to August 2022, he used unknowing and unsuspecting children to produce child pornography, and then distributed it to multiple people on social media platforms in October 2022 and September 2023.

David R. Fitzgibbons, special agent in charge, Birmingham Division, called the sentence “tremendous.”

“Let this be a warning to sexual predators that we will stop at nothing to protect every child from horrendous perpetrators like David Collier,” Fitzgibbons said. “We have now ensured one less predator is victimizing the most innocent and vulnerable members of our community.”

FBI North Alabama Violent Crime Task Force and Cybercrime Squad investigated the case, along with the assistance of the Madison, Lawrence and Limestone County Sheriff’s Offices, Moulton and Huntsville police and the Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Paroles.

Assistant United States Attorneys R. Leann White and John M. Hundscheid prosecuted the case.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.