Blue Springs Man Sentenced to 17 Years for Child Pornography Offense

KANSAS CITY, MO—Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Blue Springs, Mo., was sentenced in federal court today for receiving child pornography over the Internet.

Michael Sottilare, 43, of Blue Springs, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to 17 years and six months in federal prison without parole.

On July 14, 2010, Sottilare pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography over the Internet on March 23, 2008.

An undercover FBI agent in Maryland, using file-sharing software, conducted an Internet search on Nov. 19, 2007, using a term commonly associated with child pornography. Sottilare’s computer was sharing images and movies that included child pornography, and the undercover FBI agent downloaded a sample of six child pornography images, five of which matched identified victims of child pornography.

While executing a search warrant at Sottilare’s residence, law enforcement officers recovered a computer with two hard drives. They also recovered, from a locked safe, more than 100 CDs and DVDs, which contained images and movies of child pornography that had been downloaded over a five-year period. A forensic examination of Sottilare’s electronic media uncovered more than 700 images of child pornography and more than 100 videos of child pornography. Many of the images, both photos and videos, were of prepubescents. There were multiple images of bondage and other sadistic, violent images and movies of child pornography.

Links to several apparent child pornography websites were found in the “favorite places” file of Sottilare’s AOL archives.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine Fincham. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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.