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Press Release

Former High School Teacher Sentenced for Distributing Child Porn

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Missouri

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a former teacher at St. Elizabeth High School in St. Elizabeth, Mo., was sentenced in federal court distributing child pornography.

 

Stephen Gregory Strobel, 26, of Jefferson City, Mo., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to 10 years and one month in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Strobel to serve 15 years on supervised release following his incarceration.

 

On April 18,2016, Strobel pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography.

 

In April 2014 a Wooster, Ohio woman discovered that her 13-year-old daughter had engaged in a sexually explicit Internet chat with Strobel. On May 12, 2014, investigators contacted Strobel at St. Elizabeth High School. Strobel admitted he had exchanged pornographic photos with the 13-year-old victim and that she had sent him pornographic photos and a video. According to court documents, Strobel then distributed that video to another person.

 

Strobel also told investigators that he had traded photos of underage girls with various people online. He never asked the ages of the children depicted, but estimated them to be between the ages of 13 and 15. Strobel estimated that he had received 15 photographs of underage children, the youngest being five or six years old. He stated that he had sent approximately 10 photos of underage children to other people and had also shared videos depicting underage children.

 

According to court documents, Strobel sent photos depicting child pornography to other individuals throughout the United States, including users who were identified as possible children with whom Strobel was communicating, engaging in sexual role playing and exchanging suspected child pornography images.

 

Investigators identified a video and approximately 500 images of child pornography on Strobel’s iPhone.

 

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Lynn. It was investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the FBI, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and the Wayne County, Ohio, Sheriff’s 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."

Updated August 10, 2016

Topic
Project Safe Childhood