Registered Sex Offender Sentenced to Life in Prison for Producing Child Porn

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Blue Springs, Mo., man who is a registered sex offender was sentenced in federal court today for creating videos of his sexual assault of a child.

William G. Weiss, 40, of Blue Springs, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to life in federal prison without parole.

Weiss was required to register as a sex offender due to his prior felony convictions for attempted statutory sodomy of two other child victims. This case marked the first prosecution in the Western District of Missouri under a federal statute that classifies violent crimes against children. The statute mandates a life sentence if a defendant with a prior sex conviction (in which the victim was a child) is convicted of a federal sex offense in which the victim is a child.

On Nov. 21, 2012 Weiss pleaded guilty to producing child pornography. Weiss admitted that he used an 8-to-9-year-old minor, identified as Jane Doe, to produce child pornography.

Law enforcement officers discovered a video of child pornography on Weiss’s cell phone during an investigation into his sexual assault of another minor. (Weiss has been charged in Jackson County Circuit Court with statutory sodomy and attempted statutory rape related to this conduct.)  Investigators found a self-produced video of Weiss having sexual intercourse with Jane Doe, whom he identified as the daughter of a friend. Investigators found two more child pornography movies that depicted the same child victim, Jane Doe, on Weiss’s computer. Weiss admitted that he had sexually assaulted her eight to 10 times.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore. It was investigated by the Lee’s Summit, Mo., Police Department.

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."