KANSAS CITY, Mo.– Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an Independence, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today on charges related to attempting to distribute child pornography over the Internet.

Kyle Shadoe McClure, 22, of Independence, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to eight years and four months in federal prison without parole.

On June 3, 2010, McClure pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute child pornography over the Internet, attempting to receive child pornography over the Internet and possessing child obscenity (cartoons that depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct).

In the course of an undercover investigation, officers with the Independence, Mo., Police Department identified McClure’s computer as listing child pornography files available for sharing over the Internet. McClure used peer-to-peer file-sharing programs to search the Internet for child pornography, as well as to make the child pornography files on his own computer available to others. McClure’s computer contained hundreds of images and videos depicting child sexual abuse.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine Fincham. It was investigated by the Independence, Mo., Police Department.

Project Safe Childhood
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 United States Attorneys= Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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