Fridley man pleads guilty to distributing child porn

A 37-year-old Fridley man on Thursday pleaded guilty in federal court to sending sexually explicit pictures of children to an Internet Yahoo group.

Matthew Eric Linngren pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography for sending 600 images over the Internet.

According to prosecutors, Linngren sent the pictures in October 2005. He was indicted in September 2009.

The case was part of a national initiative called Project Safe Childhood to combat the sexual exploitation of children, especially on the Internet.

Last year, nearly 2,300 child-pornography indictments were filed, which was a 33 percent increase over 2006 when the project began.