PRESS RELEASE

Springfield Sex Offender Sentenced to 17 Years for Child Pornography

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Springfield, Mo., man who is a prior sex offender was sentenced in federal court yesterday for receiving and distributing child pornography within an online group.

Anthony P. Thuro, 41, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 17 years in federal prison without parole, to be followed by a 25-year term of supervised release. 

On June 5, 2023, Thuro pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing child pornography. Thuro, a registered sex offender, has two prior felony convictions for statutory sodomy (involving 7-year-old and 13-year-old victims). The court also sentenced Thuro to spend the rest of his life on supervised release following incarceration.

During a law enforcement investigation, the FBI discovered that a user distributed a Mega folder containing 13.7 gigabytes of data, which included numerous videos of child sexual abuse material, to a Kik group. The Mega folder was traced back to Thuro, and IP addresses indicated that Thuro accessed the Mega folder multiple times. According to court documents, those videos in the Mega included depictions of toddlers being sexually abused, prepubescent children subjected to sexual abuse and bondage, and prepubescent children subjected to bestiality.

On Aug. 30, 2022, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Thuro’s residence. They seized Thuro’s cell phone, which contained evidence he had accessed the Mega and Kik applications in the past. Investigators also found 36 images of child sexual abuse material that were cached in the gallery application of the phone.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie L. Wan. It was investigated by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Greene County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, the Springfield, Mo., Police Department, and the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."