Former H. E. Williams official pleads guilty to child pornography charge

A former H. E. Williams official who was caught with child pornography and on his workplace computer and phone pleaded guilty this morning in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Judge David P. Rush ordered a presentencing investigation for Shane Barton, 56. No date has been set for sentencing.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, the director of information technology for Carthage-based H.E. Williams, Shane Barton’s employer, was alerted to a suspected virus on Barton’s company-issued computer that was in Barton’s office and connected to the business network.

After H. E. Williams placed Barton on leave, a forensic examination of the computer identified approximately 10,000 images and approximately 100 video files of suspected child pornography, the probable cause affidavit said, as well as additional video files of suspected child pornography on the iPhone.