Missouri teacher sentenced to 20 years for producing child pornography

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A former Kansas City area high school teacher was sentenced in federal court Tuesday for secretly recording pornographic videos of three teenage victims in his bathroom.

This sentence resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Clinton County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.

William Derek Williams, 40, of Cameron, Missouri, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to 20 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Williams to 10 years of supervised release following incarceration. Williams was formerly a high school language arts teacher, and was more recently a part-time high school multimedia teacher at the time of the offense.

Williams pleaded guilty on Aug. 26, 2019, to one count of producing child pornography. In his plea agreement Williams admitted that he secretly filmed three different victims over a five-year period from January 2013 to September 2018 while they were in the basement bathroom of his residence.

A then-15-year-old victim discovered a hidden camera, designed to look like a cell phone charger plug, on Sept. 6, 2018. The victim opened the device and retrieved a micro SD card, which he inserted into his cell phone in order to view its contents. The card included a secretly-recorded video of the victim.

The child victim later turned the device over to investigators. On Sept. 8, 2018, authorities executed a search warrant at Williams’ residence and seized a laptop computer and an SD card. Each of those devices contained pornographic videos of two more teenage victims who were secretly recorded in the basement bathroom. The laptop included five distinct videos produced on five different days of a then-16-year-old victim. The laptop and the SD card contained several pornographic videos of a third victim who was then between 14 and 16 years old.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Luna.

This investigation was conducted under HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 25,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child exploitation material, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2019, more than 3,500 child predators were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators. From outside the U.S. and Canada, callers should dial 802-872-6199. Hearing impaired users can call TTY 802-872-6196.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.

HSI is a founding member of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.