SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI – A Carl Junction, Missouri, man was sentenced in federal court today for transporting a Kansas minor across state lines to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Nathan Roger Belcher, 31, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark to 12 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Belcher to serve 20 years on supervised release following incarceration.
On Oct. 2, 2019, Belcher pleaded guilty to one count of transporting a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Belcher admitted that he transported a child victim, identified in court documents as “Jane Doe 1” with a date of birth in 2003, from Kansas across the state line into Missouri. They engaged in criminal sexual activity on two occasions, once at a residence in Missouri and once near a creek outside Neosho, Missouri, in 2017.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the FBI, the Columbus, Kan., Police Department, and the Cherokee County, Kan., Sheriff’s Department.
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.”
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