Clay County Man Sentenced to 196 Months for Distribution and Possession of Child Pornography

LONDON, KY. - A Manchester man, Richard Scott Smith, 45, was sentenced on Tuesday to 196 months in federal prison, by U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom, for one count of distribution and one count of possession of child pornography. Smith was further ordered to pay $31,000 in restitution to his victims. 

In his plea agreement, Smith admitted to distributing sexually explicit images of an 8-year-old female via the Skout application.  Skout is a social networking application.  Judge Boom held that Smith’s conduct involved children as young as 3-years-old and involved more 1,200 images under the United States’ Sentencing Guidelines.  Smith has two prior convictions for assault, and a federal conviction for transporting undocumented aliens within the United States.  

Smith pled guilty in October of 2020.

Under federal law, Smith must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Smith will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 10 years, following his release.

Carlton S. Shier, IV, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky and James Robert Brown, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office, jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI London Office.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenna E. Reed. 

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.  Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.