KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., was sentenced in federal court today for producing child pornography after recording videos of two minor victims, including a teenager who responded to his online advertisement for modeling and a minor who was secretly filmed in the shower.

Marcus S. Clarke, 43, a citizen of Jamaica residing in Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple to 30 years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Clarke to serve a 10-year term of supervised release following incarceration.

On June 1, 2015, Clarke pleaded guilty to one count of producing child pornography and one count of attempting to produce child pornography.

According to court documents, a 15-year-old girl, identified as Jane Doe #1, had been sending and receiving text messages on a borrowed cell phone. The cell phone’s owner notified a Prairie Village, Kan., police detective when she noticed a text conversation about a modeling photo shoot.

Jane Doe #1 told law enforcement officers that she responded to a Craigslist advertisement for models for a photo shoot. Clarke picked her up at a park in Prairie Village on Oct. 3, 2014, and drove her to his apartment in the Northland. When they arrived at the apartment, Clarke put a flash drive in his television to display photos of nude females to Jane Doe #1. MV described the images to law enforcement officers as “disturbing” because the women were nude and engaged in sexual activity. Clarke took both nude and non-nude photos and videos of Jane Doe #1 using a digital camera and digital recorder. During one of the video recordings Clarke engaged in sexual activity with Jane Doe #1.

According to court documents, Clarke had been advertising online for lingerie and nude modeling as far back as September 2012.

An FBI agent used the same cell phone that Jane Doe #1 had used to contact Clarke. Several text messages were exchanged in which Clarke made arrangements to meet Jane Doe #1 again for another photo shoot. When Clarke arrived at the Prairie Village park to meet Jane Doe #1 on Oct. 22, 2014, he was placed under arrest. Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Clarke’s residence and seized computers and computer storage devices that contained sexually explicit videos of Jane Doe #1.

Clarke also admitted that he secretly recorded video of a second victim, identified as Jane Doe #2, to produce child pornography between Jan. 1, 2007, and Dec. 13, 2010. According to court documents, investigators discovered an SD card in Clarke’s apartment that contained video recordings in which Clarke appeared to secretly film the 13-year-old female while she took a shower.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa A. Moore. It was investigated by the FBI and the Prairie Village, Kan., 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.”