Man sentenced in child pornography case
Child pornography was acquired through LimeWire.
Published Feb. 5, 2009
A Columbia man was sentenced to a total of nine years for possession and promotion of child pornography.
Clarence A. Tremaine, 34, was sentenced to five years in prison for first-degree promotion of child pornography and four years of probation for possession of child pornography.
The jury in the case originally wanted to sentence Tremaine to seven years in prison but the judge brought the sentence down to five years.
Tremaine was found guilty of the charges on Dec. 19. He was sentenced to incarceration on Feb. 2, according to Missouri court documents.
His sentencing comes after numerous court hearings in his case.
Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force coordinator Detective Andy Anderson said Tremaine's sentencing stems from a three-month investigation that started in April 2007.
"We developed leads that he was offering previously identified child pornography that was already in our systems," Anderson said.
Anderson also said they traced the pornography to his home computer because he used the peer-to-peer networking program LimeWire.
"Once we traced the pornography to his home, we served a search warrant to his residence and we seized his computer along with other items and analyzed his computer once in our possession," Anderson said.
Tremaine was arrested June 13, 2007 by Boone County Sheriff's Department at his home, but was later released after posting $20,000 bond.
"He was initially charged with promoting child pornography until further evidence came against him," Anderson said.
The computer had approximately seventeen videos depicting the sexual molestation of prepubescent children, the news release stated. It also stated Tremaine offered numerous child pornography videos to others through LimeWire.
Anderson said once Tremaine is released, he will have to register on a nationwide database as a child offender.
Anderson also said that cases happen often, and he works with similar cases everyday.
"This is unbelievably common and many of the cases are traced through computers," Anderson said.
Anderson said child pornography cases happen at an alarming rate.
"To get an understanding as to how often this occurs, in the last six months I have investigated almost 25,000 different computers with already identified child pornography," Anderson said.
Anderson also said most people don't realize that most of these cases involved infants or school-age children.
The task force arrested 25 people in their region last year, but not all of the criminals were involved in child pornography.