LANSING, Kan. — A 29-year-old Lansing man was convicted Friday of two counts of sexual exploitation of a child after entering a guilty plea.
The Leavenworth County Attorney’s Office filed charges after Google LLC discovered 13 image and video files of suspected child pornography, that was possessed by a user identified with an email that was associated with Curtis Ray Shepherd.
Google submitted this information to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the case was submitted to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. KBI reviewed the images and confirmed they were child pornography.
A search warrant was obtained for the IP address associated with the account, which was associated with a physical address in Lansing. KBI agents conducted a search warrant on the premises, where contact was made with Shepherd.
A following investigation revealed further images on Shepherd’s cell phone that were confirmed to be images of sexual abuse to preteen girl.
“We are incredibly grateful to companies like Google that will monitor things like this,” Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said. “We hope companies like this stay vigilant to help us catch these irreprehensible crimes. We hope those that think they can get away with this know they will be caught.”
Sentencing is set for October 27. Shepherd remains in custody at the Leavenworth County Jail.