Thursday, October 04, 2018

Former Joplin police officer arrested on child pornography charges

Gary McKinney, 43, owner of Gary McKinney Plumbing, Joplin, is in the Greene County Jail, being held without bond after being arrested today on federal child pornography charges.

McKinney, an officer with the Joplin Police Department from 1999 to 2006, and later an officer with the Webb City, and Duquesne police departments, allegedly exchanged pornographic files with Anthony Helsel, 31, Joplin.

The Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force were led to McKinney following their investigation and subsequent arrest of Helsel.



The probable cause affidavit detailed McKinney and Helsel's alleged crimes: Helsel admitted to investigating officers that he had sent videos of himself with a four-year-old girl to others, including McKinney.

When law enforcement arrived at Helsel's home, he was talking to McKinney, who was going by the name of "Jim Beam" on the KIK application, the affidavit said. Helsel said McKinney sent him a $30 money gram asking for photos of the four-year-old's feet. He also asked for shoes and socks that had been worn by the girl, but he did not want anything that had been laundered.

In exchange for that, McKinney allegedly offered Helsel an opportunity for a sexual encounter with an adult woman. When McKinney and the woman arrived at Helsel's home, the woman declined to have sex with him, the affidavit said.

Helsel gave law enforcement officers permission to assume his KIK identity and began "engaging in chats with Jim Beam." An attempt to arrange a meeting with McKinney that evening was unsuccessful.


A forensic examination of Helsel's phone showed numerous conversations between Helfel and McKinney, according to the affidavit. On October 2, Helsel sent McKinney several files, with two including child pornography.

One included an approximately five-year-old girl engaged in a sex act with a boy, who appeared to be about nine years old.

Joplin Police conducted a search warrant at McKinney's home on South Byers Avenue Wednesday. A forensic examination of McKinney's phone showed a chat dated August 26:

During the chat, the two talked about setting up or finding groups with young children live streaming sexual acts. McKinney talked about having "a few women with little girls." (The other man) asked if they would "live show" and McKinney replied , "Yeah they (have intercourse with) their kids."
McKinney and other man exchanged child pornography images, including photos of a six-year-old, a seven-year-old an "infant or toddler" whose genital area was being graphically displayed by an adult.

The search of the phone uncovered other exchanges of child pornography and discussion about children engaged in sexual activity, according to the probable cause affidavit.

FBI investigators interviewed the woman McKinney allegedly tried to set up with Helsel and were told McKinney liked her to have sex with men, including an act that involved her feet and then give him the details.


More description of Helsel's crimes were included in a news release issued today by the U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri:

A related federal criminal complaint filed on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018, charges Helsel with using a minor to produce child pornography.

According to the affidavits filed in support of the federal criminal complaints, the investigation began on Sept. 17, 2018, when a federal agent received a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Facebook reported that a user, later identified as Helsel, had uploaded a video file of the sexual assault of a 4-year-old victim.

On Oct. 2, 2018, an investigator with the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office notified local authorities that an undercover officer had made contact with Helsel during their investigation on the KIK messaging application. Helsel allegedly offered files of child pornography to the undercover officer and other members of the KIK group, and sent the undercover officer pornographic images of child pornography.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness! What twisted deviant minded, disgusting people!
Anyone who can look at a child and have any type of sexual thoughts is demented.
I had to stop reading this article after just a few paragraphs.
Sickening and perverse.
Lock them up and throw away the key at the very least. They cannot rehabilitate these types.

Anonymous said...

It made me nauseated and had to stop reading. Maybe it’s time we became as passionate about this as we are about gun control and abortion.
This article will likely get few comments. Yet I remember so many passionate comments when our local high school students exercised their rights to peacefully assemble and call for an end to school shootings.
There’s something wrong with us.

Anonymous said...

I'm absolutely disgusted! What went wrong with an individual that would make them think this was at all ok? I just don't understand!!!

Anonymous said...

I would like to say I'm disgusted by this but that goes without saying. In today's society statistics show that sex and violence is so prevalent that children are growing up seeing it everywhere. They see it in everything from "family movies" to commercials. We as adults have become immune to the damage it causes them. They see important people they're supposed to look up to not receiving any consequences for their actions. Even our very own President bragging about grabbing woman. I could go on and on but I hope you get my point. We should all be ashamed.

Mapetite said...

I'm praying that the location of the children he was sharing these images of is something that is being pursued.
This ain't Mayberry people. We need to watch our children closely. We need to watch all children, if something seems off report it.