An Illinois man will serve time in federal prison for possessing pornographic material of children following a collaborative investigation by Homeland Security Investigations and various law enforcement agencies.
Michael M. Rapa, 68, of Fairview Heights, has been found guilty on two counts of possessing prepubescent child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography and will serve a total of six years in federal prison, according to a June 6 news release.
“There is something profoundly wrong with an individual who derives sexual gratification from seeing children being raped," U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft said in the release. "Law enforcement must confront this evil because, to paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, a true measure of a society can be found in how it protects its most vulnerable members.”
Rapa first came to the attention of law enforcement in Vancouver, Canada, in 2015, according to court documents, the release reported. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Fairview Heights Police Department discovered he had hundreds of images and videos of pornography featuring prepubescent children.
“One of the most horrific things an individual can do is seek to harm a child,” R. Sean Fitzgerald, HSI acting special agent in charge of the Kansas City area said in the release. “I could not be more proud of the HSI special agents and analysts, in coordination with our law enforcement partners, who have dedicated their lives to removing these predators from our community.”
Upon his release from jail, Rapa will be subject to five years of federal supervised release and will be required to register as a sexual offender for the rest of his life, according to the release.
