KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Lee’s Summit, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to distributing child pornography over the Internet.
Clark H. Henshaw, 36, of Lee’s Summit, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to the charge contained in an Oct. 14, 2015, federal indictment.
The investigation began in July 2013 when federal agents contacted a man in Bangor, Maine, who was trading child pornography on a photo-sharing website. Henshaw was identified as one of his primary trading partners to whom he sent images and videos of his sexual abuse of two 6-to-7-year-old boys. Each of those trading partners, he told federal agents, also claimed to have manufactured the child pornography they were sending to him.
Clark received 34 images of child pornography from his trading partner in Maine, including several images of him sexually molesting two prepubescent boys. Investigators learned that Henshaw sent two e-mail messages to other individuals on Aug. 20, 2013, that contained some of those images of child pornography.
On Feb. 13, 2014, federal agents executed a search warrant at Henshaw’s residence. Henshaw and his mother were home during the execution of the search warrant, however, agents had to force entry because no one would answer the door. They seized Henshaw’s cell phone, which contained 10 child pornography movie file downloads.
Under federal statutes, Henshaw is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of 20 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore. It was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
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
