JEFFERSON CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Jefferson City, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to receiving and attempting to distribute child pornography over the Internet.

Dustin Clay Trail, 34, of Jefferson City, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matt J. Whitworth to all three of the counts contained in a Feb. 12, 2014, federal indictment.

By pleading guilty today, Trail admitted that he received child pornography over the Internet on Sept. 3, 2013. Trail also pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute child pornography over the Internet on Sept. 4, 2013, and to possessing child pornography from May 2013 to Oct. 31, 2013.

The investigation began in May 2013 when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received CyberTip report regarding child pornography being sent by e-mail. Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Trail’s residence and seized a desktop computer, three hard drives and compact discs, which Trail must forfeit to the government.

Under federal statutes, Trail is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of 50 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $750,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Lynn. It was investigated by the FBI, the Boone County Cyber Crimes Task Force and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

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.”