A man from O’Fallon, Missouri, has been sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison for possessing child sexual abuse material. U.S. District Judge John A. Ross handed down the 78-month sentence on Thursday.
Davie John Metzger, 55, was also ordered to pay $24,000 in restitution to victims identified in the material he possessed. An additional $40,000 will go toward other child pornography victims and victim services.
Investigators found 369 images of child sexual abuse material on a flash drive belonging to Metzger, 24 images on a hard drive, 211 images in an online cloud storage account, and 343 images on a cell phone. Authorities said his conduct led to three CyberTipline reports being filed with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A court-approved search of his online account revealed photos that he had secretly taken of women and girls in public places.
Metzger pleaded guilty in April to one count of receipt of child pornography.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the St. Charles County Cybercrime Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson prosecuted the case.
"This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc."
