A St. Louis County man has entered a guilty plea after being busted for sharing child pornography with an undercover officer. The individual, James C. Astorian, age 40, confessed to the possession of child pornography in the U.S. District Court in St. Louis, and now awaits sentencing which could see him face up to 20 years behind bars, according to an official release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.
It was detailed that back in January 2020, Astorian shared numerous illicit images and videos with a member of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department via a peer-to-peer network, not knowing the individual on the other end was working to uncover such crimes; he admitted to his activities once his residence was raided by the St. Louis County Police under a court-approved search, where they seized electronic devices hoarding a staggering amount of child pornography, exactly 6,110 images and 728 videos.
The Department of Justice announcement further disclosed that Astorian had been engaging with this grotesque hobby for roughly two years prior to his capture.
A coalition of law enforcement agencies including the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, the St. Louis County Police Department, and the FBI were instrumental in the investigation leading to Astorian's arrest and guilty plea, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is leading the prosecution in a display of the concerted effort officials are willing to band together for in order to thwart the spread of such a malicious enterprise as child exploitation over the internet. This case falls under the banner of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative started by the Department of Justice in 2006 aiming to curb the tide of child sexual abuse and exploitation by drawing on the strengths and capabilities at federal, state, and local levels.
The gravity of crimes like Astorian's hits with a weight that threatens to shatter the innocence of childhood, Project Safe Childhood stands as a bulwark against such forces drawing on deep reservoirs of legal and technological expertise to track and bring to justice those who would peddle in the currency of pain and harm; Astorian is scheduled for sentencing on August 13, as the legal machinery moves forward grinding closer towards a verdict in this case.
