St. Charles County Bartender Admits Child Pornography Offense

ST. LOUIS – A former bartender from St. Charles County, Missouri on Thursday admitted possessing child sexual abuse material and installing hidden cameras in the bedroom and bathroom of a former residence.

Anthony Thomas, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography. He admitted possessing thousands of media files that contain child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that he had downloaded and thousands more containing pornography where the age of those depicted is difficult to discern.

Thomas also admitted installing hidden cameras in a bathroom and bedroom of a former residence. The bedroom camera was disguised as a smoke detector. The bathroom camera was disguised as an outlet extension plug. Both captured images of a 14-year-old girl.

The investigation began in December 2024, when agents with Homeland Security Investigations learned that someone in St. Charles County was making CSAM available for download via the BitTorrent peer-to-peer network. They then conducted a court-approved search of Thomas’ home and seized multiple electronic devices that contained CSAM.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the St. Charles County Regional SWAT Team investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes is prosecuting 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.