ASHLAND, KY. — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Kentucky, Eastern), published as received.

ASHLAND, Ky.— A Morehead, Ky., man, Johnathan Clay Davenport, 31, was sentenced to 540 months in federal prison on Wednesday, by U.S. District David Bunning, for production of child pornography and distribution of child pornography.

According to his plea agreement, law enforcement received information that a subject had distributed child abuse material on Kik Messenger, along with messages that indicated that he had been sexually abusing three minor children. Law enforcement located Davenport, and Davenport admitted he was responsible for distributing the image of child sexual abuse material and he also admitted that he was part of a group related to the sexual exploitation of children. Upon search, law enforcement found that Davenport had produced additional sexually explicit images of three minor children and attempted to produce images of a fourth minor victim, and he admitted to taking the explicit images in his home.

Davenport pleaded guilty in November 2022.  

Under federal law, Davenport must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence.  Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 15 years.

Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Jerry Templet, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Col. Phillip Burnett, Commissioner, Kentucky State Police, jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the DHS-HSI and KSP. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Roth.

This case was prosecuted 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 the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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