Donald S. Boyce, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced that Michael E. Myers, a 60-year old resident of Godfrey, Illinois, was sentenced in United States District Court to 235 months’ imprisonment for one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of receipt of child pornography. The sentences will run concurrently. Meyers was also sentenced to 5 years of supervised release to follow imprisonment and ordered to pay $2500 restitution to one of the identified victims of the child pornography images.
According to court documents, on April 14, 2016, the Madison County Sheriff’s Department received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that an email account belonging to Myers was used to send and receive images of child pornography. A subsequent investigation by detectives with the Sheriff’s Department revealed that on March 24, 2016, Myers sent another individual a video via email containing child pornography. Detectives further verified that on March 29, 2016, Myers received and viewed via email a video containing child pornography.
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."
The case was investigated by the Madison County Sheriff’s Department and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Hoell.
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