Michael Shane Tyson, Child Porn Production, Missouri 2024

A Hollister, Missouri man has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for producing child pornography.

Michael Shane Tyson, 31, of Hollister, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 30 years in federal prison without parole, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release.

Tyson, a former airline pilot, pleaded guilty on September 10, 2015, to producing child pornography involving a 9-year-old child over a two-year period and creating several videos of the abuse with his cell phone.

According to the plea agreement, a Hollister police officer responded to Cox Hospital in Branson, Missouri, on April 7, 2015, to a report of child molestation. The mother of the child victim told the officer that Tyson had sexually assaulted her daughter the previous week.

When interviewed at the Branson West Child Advocacy Center, the child victim reported that Tyson made videos of her with his cell phone and threatened her by brandishing a knife if she told anyone about the abuse.

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Tyson’s residence and seized seven cell phones, two laptop computers, and four flash drives. Investigators discovered several video recordings on one of Tyson’s cell phones showing him secretly recording two additional child victims undressing, showering, and drying off.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the FBI.

The case highlights the importance of reporting child abuse and the swift prosecution of those who commit these heinous crimes. The Hollister community can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that justice has been served in this case.

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