Smithville Man Sentenced for Internet Child Porn

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Smithville, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for receiving child pornography over the Internet.

Jacob A. Arnold, 20, of Smithville, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to 12 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Arnold to supervised release for the rest of his life following incarceration. The federal sentence will be served concurrently with Arnold’s 15-year sentence for child molestation in Clay County, Mo.

Arnold, who pleaded guilty on Oct. 22, 2015, admitted that he received child pornography over the Internet on March 17, 2015. According to court documents, Arnold was on bond for the state child molestation charge at the time he committed the federal offense.

On April 29, 2015, the Western Missouri Cyber Crimes (WMCC) Task Force received a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding a video of child pornography that had been uploaded from Arnold’s computer to a DropBox account. On June 4, 2015, members of the WMCC Task Force and officers of the Smithville Police Department executed a state search warrant at Arnold’s  residence.  Officers seized computers, cameras, digital storage devices and a cell phone.

Child pornography was located on each of the items seized from Arnold’s residence, which must be forfeited to the government. Approximately 170 videos and 1,600 images of child pornography were located on the seized items. The images and videos included graphic depictions of sexual acts by adults against children as young as three years of age. Investigators also discovered a photo of a 7-year-old boy Arnold had been charged in state court with molesting, one of three prepubescent boys who accused Arnold of molesting them.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Luna. It was investigated by the Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and the Smithville, 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."