News

Missouri Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of 'Cartoon' Child Pornography (Updated)

The United States Department of Justice's "Project Safe Childhood" initiative revealed on Monday that Christjan Bee, a 36-year-old man from Monett, Missouri, has pleaded guilty in federal court to obscenity charges for possession of "cartoons" that depicted child pornography.

In August 2011, Bee's wife contacted the Monett Police Department to report that she had found child pornography on Bee's computer. Police confiscated Bee's computer and found a collection of electronic comics titled "incest comics" that "contained multiple images of minors engaging in graphic sexual intercourse with adults and other minors."

Project Safe Childhood's press release about the plea noted that "the depictions clearly lack any literary, artistic, political or scientific value."

The government is recommending a sentence of three years in federal prison without parole for Bee. The sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled, and will be scheduled after the United States Probation Office conducts a pre-sentence investigation.

Project Safe Childhood is an initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to "combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse."

According to United States Code, Section 1466A, it is illegal for:

Any person who ... knowingly produces, distributes, receives, or possesses with intent to distribute, a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, that -
(1)(A) depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; and
(B) is obscene

In February 2010, Christopher Handley was sentenced to six months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and five years of probation for possessing manga "drawings of children being sexually abused." Handley had pleaded guilty to his charges in May 2009.

Update: Removed reference to Section 1466A (a)(2)(A) and 1466A (a)(2)(B) of the United States Code. In 2008 in the Handley case, District Judge Gritzner of the Southern District of Iowa found these sections unconstitutional. Thanks, configspace.

[Via Ozarks First]