Cooper County sex offender sentenced 45 years for federal child porn charge

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Prairie Home man has been sentenced for a federal charge involving child pornography.

Bradley Leigh Knecht, 30, was sentenced on Wednesday to 45 years in prison without parole, according to a press release from the Department of Justice. The court also ordered that he spend the rest of his life on supervised release after his incarceration.

The release says Knecht pleaded guilty to producing child pornography on April 4. He was indicted in November 2022. He has a prior Arkansas conviction for possessing child porn, according to previous reporting.

The release says that Knecht used the social media application SnapChat to portray himself as a minor in order to communicate and share explicit images with youth. The release says that he would also portray himself as the victims he obtained images from, in order to exchange with additional victims.  

He had also previously pleaded guilty to failure to register as a sex offender, the release says.