Missouri Sex Offender Admits Possessing Child Pornography

ST. LOUIS – A registered sex offender from Chesterfield on Tuesday pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession of child pornography.

Charles R. Hamilton, 65, of Chesterfield, admitted possessing 1,288 image files and 185 video files containing child sexual abuse material on his phone. 

The investigation began in May of 2023, when law enforcement officers in Alabama identified a Kik social media account that was being used to distribute child sexual abuse material. They traced the account to Hamilton, a convicted sex offender with an active sex offender registration requirement. When investigators interviewed Hamilton on his front porch on May 25, 2023, he denied possessing any unregistered social media accounts but consented to a search of his phone. That search revealed an email account appearing to match the account associated with the Kik user. Hamilton then admitted using the Kik account but denied using it to distribute child pornography. Investigators later found images of child pornography matching those distributed via the Kik account. A forensic examination found that Defendant had used Kik, Instagram and Telegram accounts to receive and transmit child pornography, Hamilton’s plea agreement says.

Hamilton is scheduled to be sentenced February 13, 2025.

The FBI, the St. Louis County Police Department and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes is prosecuting the case.

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 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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.