St. Louis Sex Offender Admits Seeking Child Pornography Online

ST. LOUIS – A sex offender from St. Louis, Missouri on Thursday admitted seeking explicit images from teens online.

James W. Rankin, 47, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of solicitation of child pornography and one count of transfer of obscene material. Rankin admitted communicating on an anonymous chat site with multiple individuals he believed to be underage and seeking explicit pictures from them.

In January of 2023, detectives from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in California were conducting an undercover investigation into internet-facilitated child exploitation when they received a message from Rankin. Using the screen name “Lonely_Nerd,” Rankin began communicating with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl. After moving the conversation to the social media application Whisper, Rankin sent her a picture of his genitals, discussed going to California to pick her up and asked for sexually explicit pictures of her. 

Rankin also admitted in his plea agreement that he possessed child pornography on his cell phone and that he’d engaged in conversations via Whisper with individuals who identified themselves as minors. In those conversations, Rankin sought more sexually explicit pictures.

Rankin was convicted of first-degree statutory rape of a minor under 14 in Greene County Circuit Court in 2021 and sentenced to five years in prison. He had been released on parole and was residing in a residential re-entry center at the time of his federal crimes. He was also convicted of endangering the welfare of a child and domestic assault in a 2017 Christian County, Missouri case after he engaged in sexual contact with a child under 17.

The solicitation of child pornography charge carries a penalty of at least 15 years in prison and a maximum of 40 years because Rankin is a prior offender. The transfer of obscene material charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. The U.S. Attorney’s office will ask for 20 years at Rankin’s sentencing, scheduled for March 5, 2024. 

The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department and the FBI investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting the case. 

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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.justice.gov/psc.