Gary A. McArthur, 50, of Arnold, Missouri, was sentenced on Jan. 25, 2013, to a term of 180 months in prison on a one-count indictment charging him with Production of Child Pornography, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today.
McArthur was also ordered to serve a term of lifetime supervised release following his imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. Additionally, McArthur was fined $1,250 and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment. McArthur pled guilty to the indictment on Oct. 18, 2012 and has been detained (held without bond) since his arraignment on June 15, 2012.
Court documents establish that the violation occurred between September 2011 and March 31, 2012, when McArthur resided with a friend, R.H., and her minor relative in Madison County, Illinois. On March 31, 2012, R.H. reported to the Madison County Sheriff’s Department that she had discovered that McArthur had been engaged in a continuing sexual relationship with her 13-year old minor relative. In a recorded interview with the Madison County Sheriff’s Department, McArthur admitted that he had been having sexual intercourse with the 13-year old minor for several months. McArthur is currently charged in the Madison County Circuit Court with four counts of Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse for those acts. Of course, a charge is not proof of guilt. McArthur is presumed innocent of the charge until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The federal charges came about when, after McArthur was arrested, a detective with the Madison County Sheriff’s Department, who also serves as a Special Investigator with the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force, performed a forensic examination of McArthur’s cellular phone. It was discovered that on March 7, 2012, McArthur had taken a pornographic photograph of the victim depicting the minor’s nude genital area.
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."
The case was investigated by the Madison County Sheriff’s Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Ali Summers and Nathan Stump.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
