CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (NewsFirst) — A man from Ste. Genevieve County has been sentenced to 210 months in prison for producing explicit images involving the sexual abuse of a young boy, according to a press release from the Office of the United States Attorney Eastern District of Missouri.
Noah Church, 22, entered a guilty plea in September on one count of sexual exploitation of a minor. Church confessed to transmitting images containing material depicting the sexual abuse of a child to an undercover FBI agent.
The investigation by the FBI started in April 2022, focusing on Church’s use of an online chat forum on Kik Messenger. Operating under the username “LittleBois123,” Church shared explicit pictures of a child and engaged in discussions about sexually abusing the minor. The FBI successfully traced the username LittleBois123 to a residence in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, leading to a court-approved search of the premises on June 8, 2022. During the search, photos of the child were discovered on Church’s phone, which contained hundreds of images featuring child pornography, according to his plea agreement. Following his release from prison, Church will be subject to 20 years of supervised release.
The case was investigated collaboratively by the FBI and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Hunter handled the prosecution.
This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to address the escalating issue of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
