ST. LOUIS (News First) – A registered sex offender from St. Francois County, Missouri, on Friday admitted being caught with child sexual abuse material, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri confirms.
Thirty-nine-year-old Shane Elijah Bottom of Bismarck pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography as a prior offender. He admitted being caught by investigators with the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control, who were conducting an online investigation of those sharing child sexual abuse material. On November 19-20, 2023, Bottom distributed numerous files containing child sexual abuse material to the investigator via a peer-to-peer file-sharing program. After the files were traced to Bottom, he eventually admitted to downloading and viewing the images. At least 904 images were found on Bottom’s phone by an agent with the U.S. Secret Service. Of those, 373 images depicted the sexual abuse of minors who have been identified by law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In 2016, Bottom was convicted in Johnson County Missouri Circuit Court with two counts of child molestation first-degree for the sexual abuse of a seven-year-old. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Both sides have agreed to recommend a sentence of 20 years in prison followed by life on supervised release.
The case was investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the U.S. Secret Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting 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.
