Joplin Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Child Pornography

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Joplin, Missouri, man was sentenced in federal court today for receiving and distributing child pornography over the internet.

Daniel Shawn Rehman, 25, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips to 10 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Rehman to 15 years of supervised release following incarceration.

On March 6, 2019, Rehman pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing child pornography over the internet.

According to court documents, the website Tumbler reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Rehman had uploaded multiple files of child pornography. Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Rehman’s apartment on Nov. 7, 2018. Officers seized multiple devices belonging to Rehman’s cell phone, which contained child pornography and a significant amount of child pornography anime. 

There also were multiple images that depicted violence and racial hatred; for example, Rehman created an image where he is wearing a Nazi officer’s hat in front of a large pile of dead bodies. In another image, a cartoon character duck is depicted with a caption bubble stating, “When you trick the autistic kid into raping the girl with Down syndrome you record it, sell the video to a local pedophile and use the profit to buy guns to shoot up the school.”  Inside Rehman’s apartment, officers found a green flag hung on one of the apartment walls, which Rehman told them was a flag for Pakistani Nazis. In the kitchen, above the cabinets, officers found a German Nazi officer’s hat. A Ruger handgun was found inside a metal ammunition can, along with more than 300 rounds of ammunition.

Rehman admitted to officers that he had been viewing child pornography for several years, and that he had downloaded and possessed images of child pornography of children as young as infants.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crime Task Force and Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Project Safe Childhood
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."