Child Predator Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison

A Springfield, Missouri man has been sentenced to 35 years in federal prison for sexually assaulting a child victim and recording the abuse on his cell phone.

William Shane Berg, 50, was sentenced in federal court by U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips to 35 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Berg to spend the rest of his life on supervised release following incarceration.

Berg pleaded guilty on June 2, 2022, to one count of the sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of receiving child pornography over the internet. He admitted to sexually abusing a minor victim, identified as John Doe 2.

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Berg’s residence on April 12, 2020, and seized a laptop computer, VHS tapes, CDs, two laptop hard drives, a portable hard drive, a CD writer, USB drives, a camera and media card, three Chromebooks, and a cell phone. Investigators found multiple files on the cell phone and the laptop computer that depicted Berg sexually abusing John Doe 2. They also found additional files of child pornography that Berg downloaded from the internet.

When the victim was interviewed at the Springfield Child Advocacy Center, he told investigators that Berg started sexually abusing him when he was in the fifth grade. He said Berg took videos on his cell phone during the sexual abuse.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, the FBI, and the Springfield, Mo., Police Department.

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. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.

Project Safe Childhood aims to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse by partnering with local communities, law enforcement agencies, and other organizations to prevent child abuse and provide support to victims and their families.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab ‘resources.’

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