News and Press Releases

Clinton County man sentenced for subscribing to child porn web sites

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 1, 2010

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Clinton County, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for attempting to receive and possess child pornography after he subscribed to several child pornography Web sites.

Michael Pinkerton, 33, of Clinton County, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to 10 years in federal prison without parole.

On March 9, 2010, Pinkerton pleaded guilty to attempting to receive child pornography and to attempting to possess child pornography. Pinkerton was arrested in November 2005, when the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department received a report that he was hiding in the women’s dressing room of a Clay County, Mo., Target store and photographing young girls as they were changing clothes. During the course of the investigation, officers discovered two Compaq Presario computers belonging to Pinkerton in a storage facility.

One of the computers contained several e-mails that confirmed Pinkerton’s subscription to five pay-for-view child pornography Web sites and indicated that Pinkerton also attempted to access a sixth pay-per-view site. An analysis revealed that the computers were also used to view child pornography from the pay-for-view child pornography Web sites.

The review of both computers showed that Pinkerton repeatedly conducted Internet searches for child pornography. The Internet favorites files of both computers contain numerous Web site titles suggesting child pornography along with rape.

This case was prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Kansas City, Mo., Police 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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