SPRINGFIELD, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Weaubleau, Mo., man has been sentenced in federal court for exploiting a minor to produce child pornography.

Larry Allison, 51, of Weaubleau, Mo., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool on Tuesday, March 10, 2015, to 17 years in federal prison without parole.

On Oct. 20, 2014, Allison pleaded guilty to using a minor to produce child pornography. Allison admitted that he used a minor, identified in the federal indictment as “Jane Doe,” to produce child pornography in January 2014.

According to court documents, Allison contacted the minor victim through a Web site, and they began exchanging text messages, which became sexually explicit. Allison and the minor victim exchanged nude photos with one another and communicated about meeting at a local hotel for sex. The conversations ended when the victim’s mother took her daughter’s cell phone and contacted police.

A Springfield, Mo., police detective began texting Allison, according to court documents, portraying herself as the minor victim. Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Allison’s residence on Jan. 30, 2014.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by the Springfield, Mo., Police Department, the Hickory 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.”