January 6, 11

NEWS / St. Joseph Man Sentenced for Child Pornography Offense

KANSAS CITY, MO—Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a St. Joseph, Missouri man was sentenced in federal court today for attempting to distribute child pornography over the Internet.

Stephen Christopher Jackson, 41, of St. Joseph, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to eight years and four months in federal prison without parole.

On Aug. 5, 2010, Jackson pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute child pornography over the Internet. An FBI agent in Phoenix, Arizona identified Jackson’s computer as making child pornography files available over the Internet via a peer-to-peer file-sharing program. Local agents obtained a search warrant for Jackson’s residence and seized two computers along with electronic storage media. Investigators found hundreds of images of child pornography, including images of sadistic or other violent sexual abuse of children and depictions of minors under the age of 12, including the sexual abuse of a toddler.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine Fincham. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

http://kansascity.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/kc010511.htm