SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A registered sex offender in Springfield, Mo., has been sentenced in federal court for receiving and distributing thousands of images of child pornography over the Internet.
Anthony Richard Salois, 51, of Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough on Friday, June 1, 2018, to 15 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Salois to 20 years of supervised release following incarceration. Salois, who has a prior state conviction for sexual abuse involving a minor, has remained in federal custody since his arrest in July 2014.
Salois, who pleaded guilty on Feb. 1, 2018, admitted that he received and distributed child pornography over the Internet between Sept. 16 and 20, 2013. Salois utilized a peer-to-peer file-sharing network to download child pornography.
Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Salois’s residence on Oct. 13, 2013, and seized two desktop computers. Investigators found 3,973 images of child pornography, 50 multimedia files of child pornography, 641 images of child erotica and 39 multimedia files of child erotica on those computers.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Abram McGull, II. It was investigated by the FBI and the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crime Task Force.
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
