project safe childhood
kC man charged with recieving child porn over the internet
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man was charged in federal court today with receiving child pornography over the Internet.
Robin G. Leighty, 38, of Kansas City, was charged in a three-count criminal complaint that was filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo.
The federal criminal complaint alleges that Leighty downloaded child pornography from the Internet on March 10 and April 19, 2009. Leighty is also charged with one count of possessing child pornography on April 11, 2011. Leighty remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Tuesday, May 10, 2011.
According to an affidavit filed in support of today’s complaint, Leighty’s relatives found printed images of child pornography in his bedroom along with papers and writings about sexual encounters with minors. Many of the 8 X 10 glossy images contained handwritten notes.
Law enforcement officers executed a search of Leighty’s residence and recovered numerous CDs, notebooks/journals, printed child pornography and child erotica, numerous VHS tapes, girls underwear, a camera and two computers. According to the affidavit, some of Leighty’s writings contained statements about his sexual interest in minors he had actually seen. Images of child pornography had also been cut out and pasted into scrap book-type pages.
Phillips cautioned that the charges contained in this complaint are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore. It was investigated by 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.
