A Florissant man has been sentenced to over 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to child pornography. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey sentenced Patrick Neistat, 24, on Thursday to 170 months following his October guilty plea to one count of receipt of child pornography.
Neistat admitted possessing images and videos depicting child sexual abuse on several cellular phones. The investigation began in September 2022 when detectives from the St. Louis County Police Department received a Cyber Tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The tip indicated that someone using a Skout social media account had uploaded images showing the sexual abuse of a minor. Detectives traced this activity back to Neistat’s home.
When approached by authorities, Neistat initially denied owning a cell phone, but police later found and seized it. According to his plea agreement, Neistat possessed 123 images and four videos of child pornography on one device, along with additional material categorized as “age difficult” and hundreds of computer-generated or animated images showing children in sexual acts. He also had videos involving himself and a five-year-old child. A second phone contained more illicit images and evidence of sexually explicit conversations with minors aged 12 and 14.
The case was investigated by both the FBI and the St. Louis County Police Department, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes handled prosecution.
“This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice,” according to officials. “Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.”
More information about Project Safe Childhood can be found at www.justice.gov/psc.
