Missouri Man Sentenced to 5 ½ Years in Prison for Child Pornography

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Thursday sentenced a man from St. Peters, Missouri to five and one-half years in prison on a charge of possessing of child pornography.

Martin D. Smith, 58, possessed 2,561 images and 13 videos containing child pornography on his OnePlus cellular telephone, a Samsung cellular telephone and an Alcatel tablet, his plea agreement says. Smith pleaded guilty in November.

The investigation began with an August 21, 2020 tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Smith was uploading of multiple files containing child pornography. Smith later admitted viewing and downloading child pornography from the internet, and said he had been doing so for a year and half.

The case was investigated by the St. Charles County Cyber Crime Task Force and the FBI.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson prosecuted the case. 

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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.justice.gov/psc.