KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Delaware man with a prior conviction for child sexual abuse was indicted by a federal grand jury today for using the Internet to entice a Richmond, Mo.-area teenager to engage in illicit sexual activity, and for producing and possessing child pornography.

Aaron T. Fletcher, 39, of Seaford, Del., was charged in a three-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo. Fletcher was convicted in Delaware in 2000 of raping a victim under 16 years of age.

Today’s indictment alleges that Fletcher enticed a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity between Feb. 1, 2015, and March 30, 2015.

Fletcher is also charged with one count of using a minor to produce child pornography between March 27 and 30, 2015, and one count of possessing child pornography on March 30, 2015.

Dickinson cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Luna. It was investigated by the Richmond, Mo., Police Department, the Ray County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, the Jackson County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.

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.”