Former Taney County Volunteer Firefighter Sentenced to 180 Months for Child Pornography

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A Hollister, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for sharing child pornography over the internet.

Cameron Allen Ryan, 36, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 15 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Ryan to 10 years of supervised release following incarceration. The court ordered Ryan to pay $51,000 in restitution to his victims and a $5,000 special assessment under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act.

Ryan will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and will be subject to federal and state sex offender registration requirements, which may apply throughout his life.

Ryan pleaded guilty on Dec. 17, 2024, to one count of receipt and distribution of child pornography. According to court documents, Ryan, who was a volunteer with the Taney County Volunteer Fire Department, admitted to receiving and trading files of child pornography with the undercover FBI agent and other individuals on the internet.

Law enforcement was alerted by a CyberTip made to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. On Nov. 28, 2023, an undercover FBI agent downloaded numerous images of minor children which had been posted to an image hosting website by the suspect user profile and began communicating with suspect via email. The undercover officer made contact with the suspect, and the suspect sent a video to the agent that depicted a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

The FBI identified Ryan as the suspect user. When officers searched Ryan's cell phones, one of the phones was logged in to the email account that had been messaging the undercover FBI agent. A forensic analysis of the two phones found over 1800 files containing child pornography.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie L. Wan. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, the Springfield, Mo., Police Department, and the Taney County, Mo., Sheriff's Office.

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."