KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an Independence, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for receiving and possessing child pornography.
Darren S. O’Dell, 47, of Independence, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to seven years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered O’Dell to pay $18,000 in restitution to 17 children identified as victims of his crime.
On Jan. 19, 2017, O’Dell pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.
According to court documents, a state trooper was monitoring online activity over a peer-to-peer file-sharing network in September 2015 when O’Dell made images of child pornography available. Investigators executed a search warrant at O’Dell’s residence and seized two desktop computers, a laptop computer and an external hard drive.
Investigators discovered more than 27,000 images of child pornography and more than 350 videos of child pornography on O’Dell’s devices. The majority of child pornography depicted children under the age of 12, including adult/toddle rape scenes and prepubescent children in bondage. The recurring theme in O’Dell’s voluminous collection centers around the violent and overwhelming application of sexual force by an adult on a restrained prepubescent child. O’Dell admitted that he had been downloading child pornography for several years.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David A. Barnes. It was investigated by the Independence, Mo., Police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
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
