SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Republic, Missouri, man was sentenced in federal court today for using a 3-year-old child to produce child pornography and for possessing additional child pornography.
Vincent Dominy, 30, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 35 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Dominy to 15 years of supervised release following incarceration, and ordered him to pay $5,000 in victim restitution.
On Sept. 23, 2021, Dominy pleaded guilty to one count of the sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of receiving and distributing child pornography.
According to court documents, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force received a Cyber Tipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on Aug. 22, 2020. Dominy transmitted multiple images of child pornography through his Yahoo! email account.
On Aug. 24, 2020, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Dominy’s residence. Dominy admitted to officers that he had received and distributed images of child pornography, some as young as toddlers. Dominy also admitted that he had taken photos of his sexual abuse of a 3-year-old child and sent some of the photos to other individuals via the internet.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations 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.”