Joel Kerbrat, Failing to Register as Sex Offender, Missouri 2024

Grimy Times Exclusive

ST. LOUIS – Joel Kerbrat, a 70-year-old sex offender from Farmington, Missouri, has pleaded guilty to failing to update his registration as a sex offender. Kerbrat was convicted of possession of child pornography in a 2010 case and was placed on supervised release for life. As part of his registration, he was required to register “internet identifiers,” including any social media accounts.

On July 18, 2024, Kerbrat’s federal probation officer visited him at his home in Farmington and found a laptop and cell phone in plain view. The officer discovered a program to generate images on the laptop, as well as a profile for an AI-generated teenage girl. Kerbrat admitted that he had used the program to create images depicting child pornography. A forensic examination of the devices revealed that Kerbrat had an unregistered account on Discord, another on LiveChat and an unregistered email address.

Kerbrat was a member of a Discord group where members discussed and promoted the production of pornographic images. He also utilized a website, which he visited hundreds of times, to create images of child pornography. One of the website pages he visited was titled “build a preteen.”

Kerbrat admitted as part of his plea agreement that he utilized the program to create 52 images containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) involving depictions of prepubescent girls, 251 images of “potential CSAM” involving depictions of teenage girls, hundreds of images depicting nude children and thousands of depictions of adult pornography.

Kerbrat is scheduled to be sentenced on June 15 for the current offense and for violating his supervised release. The failure to register charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

The U.S. Probation Office of the Eastern District of Missouri investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes is prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

This case highlights the need for vigilant monitoring of sex offenders and the importance of reporting suspicious activity. If you have any information regarding child exploitation or abuse, please contact your local authorities or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at www.missingkids.org.

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