A Joplin man was sentenced in federal court today for possessing child pornography.
Donald Eugene Ruddick, 39, of Joplin, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to six years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Ruddick to pay $2,500 in restitution to each of two victims. Following incarceration, Ruddick will serve a 15-year term of supervised release.
On June 4, 2015, Ruddick pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. Ruddick admitted that he used a peer-to-peer file-sharing program to download child pornography over the Internet.
On Dec. 26, 2012, law enforcement officers identified Ruddick’s computer as sharing child pornography with other computers. Officers executed a search warrant at Ruddick’s residence and seized a desktop computer, a laptop computer and compact disks.
According to court documents, forensic examiners discovered a library of child pornography on Ruddick’s computers that included hundreds of images and hundreds of additional videos depicting children and toddlers being raped and sexually abused, many of which were in excess of five minutes in length. Ruddick possessed material depicting the sadistic and masochistic abuse of children, including the sexual violation of toddlers and children being forced to engage in sex with dogs and horses.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force.
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