KCI Baggage Handler Sentenced for Child Porn After Cell Phone Found in Dallas Airport

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former airport baggage handler whose lost cell phone was discovered at a Dallas, Texas airport – along with images of child pornography – was sentenced in federal court today.

            Jason W. Duncan, 34, of Platte City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to six years and six months in federal prison without parole.

            On Sept. 18, 2014, Duncan pleaded guilty to attempting to receive child pornography.

In 2012 Jason Duncan worked as a baggage handler for Southwest Airlines at Kansas City International Airport. On March 12, 2012, Duncan was loading bags on a plane when he accidentally dropped his phone in the cargo hold of the plane that was destined for Dallas. Duncan contacted his supervisor at Southwest and requested them to look for his phone when the plane landed in Dallas. The phone was located by two baggage handlers in Dallas. As they accessed the phone to locate a telephone number, they observed what they believed to be pictures of child pornography. A Dallas detective was notified, who identified multiple images of child pornography on Duncan’s cell phone, including images of toddlers and one image of a naked child in bondage.

The investigation was referred to a Kansas City, Mo., police detective, who discovered additional images of child pornography on the SD memory card inside the cell phone. Duncan’s collection included multiple images of sadistic and violent sexual abuse of prepubescent children, including babies.

Duncan eventually admitted to searching for and saving images of child pornography to his cell phone from different sites on the Internet, and said he had been doing so for a couple of years.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine Fincham. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."