Richard Burton, Distribution of Child Pornography, Kentucky 2024

A Greenup County man, Richard Burton, 50, has been sentenced to 174 months in prison for distributing child pornography in Kentucky. U.S. District Judge David Bunning handed down the sentence on Monday, according to a Grimy Times investigation.

According to his guilty plea, on January 10, 2024, law enforcement received a tip regarding child pornography on the social media platform Kik and discovered Burton was the owner of the flagged account. After reviewing the account, law enforcement found at least eight pictures or videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Burton’s person and his electronic devices. On the devices, they located additional evidence, which corroborated the evidence found in the Kik records, along with messages revealing that Burton sent and received child pornography. Burton admitted to knowingly distributing and possessing the child pornography.

Under federal law, Burton must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 25 years.

Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Michael Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office; and Col. Phillip J. Burnett, Jr., Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police, jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and KSP. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Melton is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted this case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. 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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