NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

BETH PHILLIPS

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov../index.html

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD

CARTHAGE MAN SENTENCED TO 19 YEARS IN PRISON

FOR RECEIVING CHILD PORN

            SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Carthage, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for receiving child pornography over the Internet.

            Ivron Butler, 45, of Carthage, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner this morning to 19 years and seven months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Butler to serve a term of supervised release, upon his release from prison, for the rest of his life.

            On Sept. 15, 2009, Butler pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography. When Butler was taken into custody on an unrelated arrest warrant on Sept. 5, 2008, law enforcement officers seized a computer that was in his possession. A forensic analysis of the computer revealed multiple images of child pornography that had been acquired over the Internet between May and September 2008.

            According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, law enforcement officers created an undercover MySpace account adopting the identity of a fictitious 13-year-old. Butler sent multiple pornographic photos and instant messages to the undercover investigators, the affidavit says, including six requests for a meeting. Butler also sent multiple pornographic Web site links to the undercover account.

            This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Carthage, Mo., Police Department and the Jasper County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.

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.

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This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available on-line at

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