project safe childhood
kC man sentenced for receiving child porn over the internet
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for receiving child pornography over the Internet.
Robin G. Leighty, 38, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple to 97 months in federal prison without parole.
On Nov. 18, 2011, Leighty pleaded guilty to receiving and possessing child pornography. Leighty admitted that he downloaded child pornography from the Internet on March 10 and April 19, 2009, and that he possessed child pornography on April 11, 2011.
According to the plea agreement, Leighty suffered a medical emergency on April 6, 2011, which required hospitalization. Leighty asked someone to retrieve his eye glasses from his residence, and that person observed numerous images of child pornography lying in and around Leighty’s bedroom. Leighty=s relatives also found printed images of child pornography in his bedroom, along with papers and writings about sexual encounters with minors and a large amount of children’s underwear. They called the police, who executed a search of Leighty=s residence and recovered numerous CDs, notebooks/journals, hundreds of printed images of child pornography and child erotica, numerous VHS tapes, girls underwear, a camera and two computers. 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.
Investigators examined the computer media, including 138 CDs, which contained approximately 58 video files and hundreds of images of child pornography.
This case was 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.
