Missouri Man Admits Child Pornography Charges

ST. LOUIS - A Crawford County, Missouri resident on Thursday admitted trying to persuade minors into engaging in sex acts online.

Jason Michael Enke, 45, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of receipt of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of coercion and enticement of a minor.

Enke admitted that from August 2023 to October 2023, he sent a series of sexually explicit messages via social media and during online chat sessions to five people who identified themselves as minors. He also sent a video of himself and a 16-year-old engaging in sex acts and attempted to persuade the minors to engage in sexual conduct.

In November of 2023, the FBI's St. Louis office received a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that Enke had sent a video containing child pornography to an Instagram user who listed their age as 15. FBI agents performed a court-approved search of Enke's home near Bourbon, Missouri and found videos containing child sexual abuse material on his electronic devices.

Enke is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 29, 2025. The receipt and distribution charges carry a potential penalty of five to 20 years in prison and the coercion charge carries a sentence of 10 years to life in prison.

The FBI and the Crawford County Sheriff's Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson 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.