ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Tuesday sentenced a sex offender who was caught again with child sexual abuse material to 15 years in prison followed by a life term of supervised release.
Paul Lewis Sanders, 41, of Warren County, Missouri, pleaded guilty in September in U.S. District Court to one count of receiving child pornography. He admitted that after an investigation triggered by a complaint to the Warren County Sheriff’s Department in February of 2023, child sexual abuse material was discovered on Sanders’ cellular phone.
In 2004, Sanders was convicted of the felony offense of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in Macoupin County, Illinois.
The Warren County Sheriff’s Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations handled the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Drake prosecuted 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 Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc .
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office — Eastern District of Missouri — U.S. Department of Justice press release.