Kansas man gets prison time for secretly recording child in a bathroom

KANSAS CITY, KAN. - A Kansas man was sentenced to 264 months in prison for clandestinely recording a minor under the age of 12 through a crack in a wall to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

According to court documents, Jeffrey T. Lyons, 33, of Olathe pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of a child.

In 2018, Lyons began secretly taking nude photos and videos of a child from a room adjacent to a bathroom through a gap in the wall. For several years, Lyons secretly recorded the minor victim partially or completely unclothed in the bathroom.

In October 2023, a relative of Lyons reported him to law enforcement. When officers approached Lyons, they had to forcefully take his cellphone because he refused to give it to them. A forensic exam on the phone uncovered the sexual exploitation videos he had taken of the minor victim and screenshots from those videos, along with almost 900 erotic photos of the child while clothed. Lyons also possessed over 2,800 CSAM photos and videos that did not involve the minor child.

"Children are innocent, defenseless, and rely on responsible adults to advocate on their behalf and shield them from predators," said U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser. "If you become aware of child abuse, you have an ethical obligation to contact law enforcement immediately. It doesn't matter if the perpetrator is a friend or a relative. The victim's welfare should always be the highest priority."

"Mr. Lyons' actions were both abhorrent and stomach-churning. The sentence ensures that a dangerous predator spends more than two decades behind bars and an additional 12 years of supervised release. The FBI remains committed to finding and bringing to justice anyone who dares to exploit or harm children," stated Chris Ormerod, FBI Kansas City Special Agent in Charge.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Audrey McCormick prosecuted the case.

Project Safe Childhood
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 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.

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