Ryan Leslie Matthews will spend the next 17 years in a federal prison after admitting earlier this year he produced child pornography when he shot videos of himself sexually abusing a 3-year-old girl sometime between 2006 and 2007.

Matthews, 39, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in June to a charge of producing sexually explicit images of a minor.

Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill sentenced Matthews on that charge Wednesday, sending him to prison for 210 months. Matthews, who will be on supervised federal probation for the rest of his life after he is released from prison, will also have to pay victims $10,700 in restitution.

Federal prosecutors say Boise police seized more than 200 optical discs containing thousands of illegal images and videos from Matthews’ home on West Targee Street in December — including video of Matthews having illegal sexual contact with the toddler.

The investigation began with a tip generated by the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) in August that Matthews had been downloading child porn from the Internet, according to U.S. Department of Justice reports.

Boise police searched Matthews’ home in December and found the optical discs, more than 500 printed pictures, and evidence that Matthews had recently done computer searches for subjects including “Child Molestation: The six steps to grooming” and “How to molest a child,” according to reports.

When first confronted by police about the web searches, Matthews said he was curious but denied ever molesting a child. Police later found the video of the 3-year-old girl, and Matthews admitted to molesting her while he was baby-sitting, according to reports. Matthews was eventually arrested in February.

The case was investigated by Boise Police and ICAC with assistance from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations. Those agencies work together as part of Project Safe Childhood, which was created in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate child sexual abuse cases.