Vast Collection included Photos of Student at Local Karate Studio
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Raytown, Mo., man who formerly worked at a karate studio in Lee’s Summit, Mo., was sentenced in federal court today for distributing and receiving child pornography over the Internet.
Jered Scott Faulkner, 37, of Raytown, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to 15 years in federal prison without parole.
On May 25, 2016, Faulkner pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography over the Internet and one count of receiving child pornography over the Internet.
An FBI Child Exploitation Task Force officer identified Faulkner’s computer as sharing videos of child pornography during an investigation into a peer-to-peer file-sharing network in September and October 2014. The undercover agent, on multiple occasions, downloaded numerous video files from Faulkner’s computer that contained child pornography. According to court documents, a recurring theme in the images was the graphic depiction of the rape and sodomy of pubescent and prepubescent girls, some as young as babies, by adult men. Some of the files also depicted child bondage.
According to court documents, the same officer was conducting a separate investigation and located a second and distinct IP address sharing images and videos of child pornography between November 2014 and December 2014. Though not known to the officer at that time, this IP address was also later determined to be Faulkner’s.
Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Faulkner’s residence on Jan. 15, 2015. Officers seized Faulkner’s laptop computer and hard drive. A forensic analysis confirmed the presence of at least 300 videos and 2,552 images of child pornography.
Also discovered by the forensic analyst were two images of an approximately 7-year-old female that had been taken by a cell phone in July 2014 and downloaded onto Faulkner’s computer. Investigators learned that the child victim was a prior student at a local martial arts studio where Faulkner was employed at the time of the investigation.
Faulkner also admitted that his mother, whom law enforcement officers had initially contacted, alerted him about the investigation before officers arrived at his residence to execute the search warrant. When officers arrived, Faulkner was in the process of reformatting his laptop computer. Despite the attempt to reformat the computer, however, the forensic examiner was able to successfully recover the contents of the computer.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Luna. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police 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."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
