ST. LOUIS – A man who possessed child sexual abuse material, including images generated by AI, was sentenced Wednesday to 18 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark also ordered Michael A. Huseman, 32, to pay $23,000 in restitution to five identified victims. Huseman possessed over 22,000 files containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on two cell phones and two laptops. Investigators also found 6,000 anime files depicting children being sexually abused and well as over 400 files of AI-generated CSAM. Included among the CSAM are about 201 files depicting child abuse victims who have been identified by law enforcement.
Huseman also told someone to delete almost 5,000 social media communications that Judge Clark said were likely not favorable to his case.
Huseman, of Manchester, pleaded guilty in June in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of receiving child pornography.
The Manchester Police Department, the Regional Computer Crimes Education and Enforcement Group of Greater St. Louis and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson prosecuted the case.
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 Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.justice.gov/psc.