A registered sex offender from St. Francois County, Missouri, has admitted to possessing child sexual abuse material. Shane Elijah Bottom, 39, of Bismarck, pleaded guilty to the charge as a prior offender on Friday.
Investigators from the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control discovered Bottom distributing numerous files containing child sexual abuse material through a peer-to-peer file sharing program in November 2023. After tracing the files back to him, he confessed to downloading and viewing these images. An agent with the U.S. Secret Service found at least 904 images on Bottom's phone, with 373 depicting identified minors' sexual abuse.
Bottom was previously convicted in Johnson County (Missouri) Circuit Court in 2016 for two counts of first-degree child molestation involving a 7-year-old victim and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Both prosecution and defense have agreed to recommend a sentence of 20 years in prison followed by life on supervised release for Bottom.
The investigation was conducted by the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the U.S. Secret Service, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson prosecuting the case.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse. It involves federal, state, and local resources working together to locate offenders and rescue victims. More information about Project Safe Childhood can be found at www.justice.gov/psc.