September 9, 2014

Kansas City Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Child Pornography Offenses

KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for possessing and attempting to distribute child pornography.

David Wayne Scott, Jr., 28, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to 15 years in federal prison without parole.

On Feb. 7, 2014, Scott pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute child pornography over the Internet and to possessing child pornography. Scott admitted that he possessed child pornography on his computers, which he shared over the Internet through a peer-to-peer file-sharing program.

Scott was identified by three separate investigations, two originating in Florida and another in New York, as sharing child pornography over the Internet. Those investigators, working independently, identified movies and images of child pornography that Scott made available to others to download over the Internet.

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Scott’s residence and seized four computers and four loose hard drives. A forensic examination found approximately 208 video files and 1,547 images of child pornography.

According to court documents, Scott admitted that he had been viewing child pornography for four to five years and had been sharing child pornography online for three years. Some of the child pornography images depicted victims who were younger than four years old, including infants. Scott shared as many as 290 child pornography files and averaged 20 to 30 file-sharing friends when he shared child pornography online. Some of those friends told him that they were actively engaged in sexual abuse of children. Scott watched minors engage in sexually explicit conduct via a webcam.

Scott must also pay restitution to four identified victims who have petitioned the court for restitution from every person who received or possesses images of their sexual abuse. He must also forfeit his computers and hard drives to the government.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine A. Connelly. It was investigated by the Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, the FBI, the Boynton Beach, Fla., Police Department and the Brevard County, Fla., 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.”