Project Safe Childhood: Cabool Man Sentenced to 50 Years for Child Porn
Photographed Sexual Assaults Against Daughter and Distributed Images Over the Internet

SPRINGFIELD, MO—Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Cabool, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for distributing and possessing child pornography, including his own photos of sexual assaults that he and others committed against his minor daughter.

Charles “Chuck” R. Denning, 50, of Cabool, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ortrie D. Smith to 50 years in federal prison without parole.

Denning repeatedly sexually assaulted his daughter over a 17-year period, from the time she was 4 years old until Denning’s arrest in January 2009, when she was 21 years old. Denning’s daughter became pregnant as a result and gave birth to his child in 2006. He also forced his daughter to engage in sex with other adults and with children, including group sex. Denning photographed these assaults and distributed the images over the Internet.

On May 12, 2010, Denning pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing child pornography and to one count of possessing child pornography. Denning admitted that he distributed 26 files of child pornography over the Internet to an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, located in Maryland, on Dec. 16, 2008. Some of the files portrayed 6-to-8-year-old victims, including photos taken by Denning of his daughter when she was 7 or 8 years old.

Denning was in possession of child pornography on a laptop computer and a computer hard drive at his residence on Jan. 25, 2009. The computers contained 24 videos and 620 images of child pornography, including children under the age of 12.

While distributing files to the undercover FBI agent, Denning also attempted to download a purported child pornography movie from the FBI undercover site (the movie had been disabled by the FBI so that, while it appeared to be downloading on Denning’s computer, he could not play the movie). Denning also admitted that he placed 51 files of child pornography on a file sharing system, some of which were downloaded by FBI agents in Maryland.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall D. Eggert. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Texas County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Project Safe Childhood

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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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.projectsafechildhood.gov.