Contact: Dean Puschnig, (414) 297-1700

Gregory J. Haanstad, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on April 17, 2017, Travis M. Kamps (age: 25) of Seymour, Wisconsin, was sentenced by Chief District Judge William C. Griesbach to 5 years in federal prison for receipt of child pornography in violation of Title 18 United States Code Section 2252A(a)(2). Upon his release the defendant will be on federal supervised release for 5 years and will have to register as a sex offender in the jurisdiction in which he resides.

Kamps used his cellular telephone and social media platforms to exchange texts, instant messages, and sexually explicit images with several underage girls throughout the United States. Ultimately, he pled guilty and was convicted of requesting and receiving five sexually explicit videos from a 16-year-old victim located in Illinois.

In pronouncing sentence, Chief Judge Griesbach expressed skepticism that Kamps, and others who have committed similar crimes, would have ever have engaged in such highly sexualized conversations or requested sexually explicit photos and videos face-to-face with their victims, but rather relied on the anonymity that the internet and social media provide. He further pointed to the need to send a strong message of deterrence to Kamps and others, to discourage similar behavior in the future.

The case was investigated by the Seymour Police Department, the Wisconsin Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel R. Humble.

This case was brought 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 U.S. Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the 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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