A St. Louis man who possessed and shared child pornography, then fled from the city while on house arrest, has been sentenced to 15 years and 8 months in prison.
U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark handed down the sentence on Wednesday against 38-year-old Daniel Bert.
Bert, of St. Louis, Missouri, was found to have possessed child sexual abuse material on multiple electronic devices, including laptops, phones, and hard drives.
After receiving two tips about Bert, the FBI discovered he was discussing his sexual interest in young children on Kik Messenger. An undercover FBI special agent began communicating with Bert on another app, Wickr.
Bert sent a picture of his genitals to the agent, told the agent that he had a hard drive full of child pornography, and asked the agent to join him in an online video chat during which Bert played videos containing child pornography.
After his indictment, Bert removed his GPS monitoring device while on house arrest and fled St. Louis. He was arrested in Florida on May 11.
Bert pleaded guilty in August to a felony charge of transportation of child pornography.
The case was investigated by the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman prosecuted the case.
Bert was also ordered by Judge Clark to be placed on supervised release for life after he gets out of prison.
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.
Key Facts
- State: Missouri
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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