U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp has sentenced Ian Wood to 20 years in prison for producing child pornography and surreptitiously recording women at the hospital where he worked. Wood, a 45-year-old resident of Rolla, Missouri, pled guilty in January to charges of production and receipt of child pornography. He admitted to recording videos of three girls in the nude, one of whom was 10 years old at the time, and to possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in his Google account.
The discovery of the CSAM was initiated by an alert from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which led to a law enforcement notification. A court-approved search warrant led authorities to Wood’s Google accounts, where videos of adult women being recorded without consent in the hospital were also found. The recordings were made in private settings, including a room and a shower, depicting full or partial nudity.
Mark Zito, Special Agent in Charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Kansas City, commented on the case stating, “The actions of this individual are not only reprehensible, but they are also a grotesque violation of human dignity and trust. We will relentlessly pursue anyone who preys on the innocent.” He further emphasized the commitment to bringing predators to justice and protecting communities from exploitation.
The case was a collaborative effort involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department, the South-Central Missouri Computer Crimes Task Force, and the Missouri Department of Social Services’ State Technical Assistance Team. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson led the prosecution.
This legal action was part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse. The project coordinates resources at federal, state, and local levels to apprehend and prosecute individuals exploiting children online, while also aiming to identify and rescue victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
