U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp sentenced James Donald Goings, 36, of Overland, Missouri, to 168 months in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for possessing child sexual abuse material and engaging in sexual contact with a teen he met online.
Goings was also ordered to pay $12,000 to the victims identified in the material he possessed. He pleaded guilty in March to one felony count of receipt of child pornography. He admitted having 2,500 images on his computer and 190 images in his Google account. Additionally, Goings traveled to Illinois to engage with a 15-year-old he met via Grindr and had contact with another teen through the same platform.
The investigation was conducted by the St. Louis County Police Department and the Edwardsville Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathan Chapman and Erin Granger prosecuted the case.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
