INDIANAPOLIS -- A man who set up "modeling sessions" with minors and put their pictures on websites was sentenced Monday to 38 years in prison after his conviction on charges of producing child pornography.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Dale Russell, 48, of Carmel, was convicted after a six-year investigation that involved numerous law enforcement agencies in Indiana and abroad.

Police said that Russell fled to Mexico during the investigation and lived there from 2007 to 2009, when he was expelled from that country and returned to the U.S., where he was arrested in California.

Russell produced child pornography on four separate occasions, involving two female victims.

"The pictures … were discovered on a computer of an unrelated offender in Canada," U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison said. "Russell's defense at trial that the pictures were artistic expressions and not illegal child pornography were rejected by the jury."

Judge Sarah Barker imposed a lifetime of supervised release after Russell gets out of prison, during which he is forbidden from having contact with minors.