A Franklin County man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for recording and possessing images and videos of his sexual abuse of a one-year-old child. U.S. District Judge John A. Ross handed down the sentence on Wednesday, describing the case as among the most severe he had seen during his 25 years as a judge.
“This is one of the worst cases of sexual abuse that I’ve seen in 25 years as a judge,” Judge Ross told William Burns before sentencing him. In addition to the prison term, Judge Ross ordered Burns to pay $146,500 in restitution to victims depicted in the material.
William Burns, 41, and Rachel Burns, 35, pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to produce child pornography and two counts of production of child pornography. William Burns also admitted guilt for possession of child pornography and an additional count of production.
The couple was arrested by University City Police Department officers on July 30, 2023. According to investigators, they believed they were meeting an 11-year-old girl with plans to bring her home and sexually abuse her. Rachel Burns later told authorities about her husband’s possession of child sexual abuse material across multiple devices. This led Franklin County Sheriff’s Office deputies to search their home, where they found electronic devices containing illicit material along with various sexual items and a silicone sex doll resembling a young girl.
Investigators discovered a video from 2022 showing both William and Rachel Burns sexually abusing a one-year-old child. Additional images and videos from that period were also recovered. Authorities identified more than 13,000 image and video files depicting child sexual abuse on digital storage devices owned by William Burns, who used WhatsApp to exchange such content with others.
At an earlier court hearing on September 3, a woman testified that she met William Burns when she was 18 and he was 33. She said he initially portrayed himself as religious but later abused her physically and sexually, even showing her disturbing footage involving an infant.
Burns “has just left a trail of wreckage behind him in his life,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes said in court Wednesday. “He was dedicated to the sexual abuse of children.”
Rachel Burns is scheduled for sentencing on October 15; prosecutors have agreed not to recommend more than 35 years in prison for her.
The investigation involved University City Police Department, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, and St. Louis County Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes is prosecuting the case.
This prosecution falls under Project Safe Childhood—a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 aimed at combating online child exploitation through coordination among federal, state, and local agencies—and seeks both prosecution of offenders and identification/rescue of victims (https://www.justice.gov/psc).
