Shaun C. Meyer, 33, of East Alton, Illinois, was sentenced Thursday, October 22, 2015, in federal court to seven years in prison for Receipt of Child Pornography, Stephen R. Wigginton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois announced today. Following his prison sentence, Meyer will be on federal supervised release for 5 years and will be required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life. Meyer was also ordered to pay $6,000 in restitution to the victims and a special assessment of $100.
Court documents establish that during an authorized undercover Internet operation, a U.S. Secret Service Task Force Officer identified a computer in the Southern District of Illinois with a certain IP address offering to participate in the distribution of child pornography through an Internet peer to peer network. Subsequently, the Task Force Officer completed a direct download of three different video files that contained child pornography from the IP address. The three video files downloaded contained depictions of prepubescent and infant female children engaged in acts of sexual penetration with adult males. The investigation further revealed that the computer was located at a certain address in East Alton, Illinois.
A federal search warrant was obtained and executed at the address in East Alton, Illinois. Meyer was present in the residence at the time the search warrant was executed. Meyer admitted to downloading and possessing child pornography.
During a forensic examination of Meyer’s computer, law enforcement agents recovered 171 video files which contained child pornography. 98 of the video files contained sexual acts involving penetration of toddler and prepubescent minors by adult males, as well as bondage or other sadistic or masochistic acts. The videos were from one minute to 53 minutes in length.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 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."
This investigation was conducted by the U.S. Secret Service Cyber Crimes Task Force and the Greenville Police Department. The case was prosecuted by United States Attorney Stephen R. Wigginton and Assistant United States Attorney Ali Summers.