Eric S. Crews, Child Pornography, Missouri 2022

A 38-year-old St. Peters, Missouri man has been sentenced to four and one-half years in prison for downloading and sharing child pornography via various social media apps.

U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel handed down the sentence on Friday to Eric S. Crews, who pleaded guilty in October to a charge of possession of child pornography in U.S. District Court.

Crews used social media apps including Kik Messenger, Viber, WhatsApp, and TamTam to send and receive child pornography. An alert was triggered when Crews uploaded 14 files containing child sexual abuse material to Kik Messenger on November 11, 2020.

On June 15, 2021, St. Charles County police conducted a court-approved search of Crews’ home and found at least 5,400 images and 610 videos containing child pornography on his Apple iPhone.

Crews will be on supervised release for life after his release from prison.

The St. Charles County Cyber Crime Task Force and the FBI investigated this case, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson prosecuting 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 federal government.

Crews’ possession of child pornography poses a significant threat to the community and undermines the safety of our children.

The St. Charles County community can rest a little easier knowing that Eric S. Crews is behind bars, but there is still much work to be done to combat the scourge of child pornography and protect our children from exploitation.

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