Dubuque Woman to Spend 30 Years in Prison for Sexually Exploiting Children and Possessing Child Pornography

 A woman who created sexually explicit images of two children was sentenced on February 12, 2021, to 30 years in federal prison

Gina Christa Urbain, age 37, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 18, 2020 guilty plea to sexually exploiting children and possessing child pornography.

At the guilty plea, Urbain admitted that she sexually exploited two minors, a 7 year-old female and 5 year-old male, by creating visual depictions of sexually explicit material involving both children.  Urbain also admitted possessing visual depictions of child pornography.

Urbain was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Urbain was sentenced to 360 months’ imprisonment.  She must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

Urbain is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until she can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Emily K. Nydle and investigated by the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office, the Dubuque Police Department, the Dubuque County Attorney’s Office, the Iowa Department of Human Services, and the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Department.