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

APRIL 6, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD

ST. JOSEPH MAN SENTENCED FOR DISTRIBUTING

CHILD PORN OVER THE INTERNET

            KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a St. Joseph, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for distributing child pornography over the Internet.

            Daren L. Holcomb, 48, of St. Joseph, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs this morning to five years in federal prison without parole.

            On Oct. 27, 2009, Holcomb pleaded guilty to using the peer-to-peer file-sharing software Kazaa to search for and download files of child pornography. The files located in the shared folder on Holcomb’s computer were therefore available for other Kazaa users to download. An undercover law enforcement officer in Maine used Kazaa to download an image of child pornography from Holcomb’s computer.

            An analysis of Holcomb’s computer by the Heart of America Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory found at least two child pornography images and two child pornography videos. The analysis also confirmed that Kazaa was loaded on the computer. Kazaa maintains a database of the files previously saved, which were later deleted from the program. This database revealed approximately 9,000 deleted files, hundreds of which were known images of child pornography. The hard drive also contained hundreds of Web sites with titles suggesting they contained child pornography, as well as e-mails that indicated Holcomb purchased a subscription to a child pornography Web site.

            This case was prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips. 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.

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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

www.usdoj.gov../index.html