ICE HSI investigation leads to 25-year sentence for child exploitation
LONDON, Ky. – A previously convicted child sex offender was sentenced to serve 25 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to production of child pornography.
The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Kentucky State Police Electronic Crimes Branch.
The announcement was made Tuesday by HSI Nashville Special Agent in Charge Jerry C. Templet Jr. and the acting U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of Kentucky.
“Because of exceptional efforts by our HSI agents, a previously convicted child sex offender has been sent to federal prison to serve a lengthy sentence, where he will be unable to victimize other vulnerable children,” said HSI Nashville Special Agent in Charge Jerry C. Templet, Jr. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to remove these offenders from our communities and ensure they pay for their incomprehensible actions.”
Court records show that from Aug. 2020 through Nov. 2020, Andrew J. Kerr, 32, of Corbin, Kentucky, recorded multiple videos of himself engaging in sexual acts with a minor victim. He transmitted the explicit images of the victim on Snapchat, a social media platform. Kerr then saved and stored images and videos of the minor victim on his cell phone.
In 2008, Kerr was previously convicted by the Commonwealth of Kentucky of criminal abuse in the first degree for abusing a 12-year-old child.
Under federal law, Kerr must serve 85% of his prison sentence and upon his release from prison, he will be supervised by U.S. Probation for life.
HSI is a directorate of ICE and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move.
HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,100 special agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States, and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.
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