A Springfield, Mo., man who is a registered sex offender was sentenced in federal court for receiving and distributing child pornography.
Rodney Shawn Henry, 51, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 20 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Henry to spend the rest of his life on supervised release following incarceration and ordered Henry to pay $48,000 in restitution to the identified victims. Henry will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and will be subject to federal and state sex offender registration requirements, which may apply throughout his life.
On Aug. 16, 2022, Henry pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing child pornography. Henry was a registered sex offender prior to this federal case due to his conviction for sexually abusing a 9-year-old child.
Springfield police officers arrested Henry on Jan. 21, 2019, for failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements by not reporting his home address. Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Henry’s residence the next day and seized his cell phone and digital storage devices. A forensic investigation of the cell phone and digital storage devices resulted in the discovery of well over 100,000 videos and images of child pornography. The images included children as young as toddlers being sexually brutalized.
Prior to Henry’s arrest, investigators had received a Cybertip Report after Dropbox, Inc., discovered images of child pornography that Henry had uploaded to his account.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crime Task Force and the Springfield, Mo., Police Department.
