A St. Charles resident has been handed a six-year prison term for his involvement in collecting child sexual abuse materials. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Brian Larkin, 54, was also instructed to pay $170,500 in restitution to victims after pleading guilty to a felony count of receiving such content. Alongside the sentence, U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig imposed a fine of $10,000 on Larkin, and a further $20,000 assessment to benefit the victims of child pornography.
Today's sentencing comes after an investigation triggered by suspicious chat room activities linked to Larkin, leading the FBI's St. Louis division to begin to actively look into the matter. It was during this time Larkin was caught with a considerable cache of illicit material, specifically over 972 image files and 962 video files of child sexual abuse, all stored on a thumb drive kept securely in a gun safe. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson was the figurehead behind the prosecution, working closely with federal authorities to bring Larkin’s case to a close.
Larkin's digital tracks had previously raised red flags in the form of two Cyber Tipline Reports to the National Center for Exploited & Missing Children, detailing his upload of five files containing child pornography using Kik Messenger. This prior activity served as a prelude to the November 29, 2023, search of Larkin's home, where the thumb drive was uncovered by agents amidst a court-approved search. After completing his prison term, Larkin will face lifetime supervised release.
The severity of the sentence reflects the ongoing urgency with which authorities are tackling the spread of child pornography online. Project Safe Childhood, the nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006, strives to consolidate efforts from various levels of law enforcement to more effectively find and prosecute online predators while assisting the victims in the process.
