Carthage Man Sentenced for Child Porn

Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Carthage, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court for receiving and distributing child pornography over the Internet.

Jerry Batchelor, 52, of Carthage, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 10 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Batchelor to supervised release for the rest of his life following incarceration.

On Jan. 11, 2016, Batchelor pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing child pornography over the Internet. Batchelor utilized a peer-to-peer file-sharing network to obtain and trade images and videos of child pornography between Aug. 10, 2012, and April 4, 2014.

A search warrant was executed at Batchelor’s residence on April 7, 2014, and a desktop computer was seized along with three portable hard drives, a thumb drive and an SD card. Images and videos of child pornography included prepubescent minors and sado-masochistic images. Investigators also found videos taken by Batchelor, who secretly videotaped adults in the bathroom.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Southwest Missouri Cybercrimes 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."

Press release from the United States Attorney’s Office: Western District of Missouri