Denton County man sentenced to life in federal prison for child pornography violations
PLANO, Texas – An Aubrey man has been sentenced to life in federal prison for child pornography violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Damien M. Diggs.
William Carl Kennedy, 42, pleaded guilty on Nov. 14, 2023 to production of child pornography and penalties relating to violations for registered sex offenders. On April 25, 2024, U.S. District Judge Richard Schell sentenced Kennedy to life in federal prison for the sexual exploitation of a child, to be followed by an additional 10 years for penalties for registered sex offenders, to run consecutively.
According to information presented in court, Kennedy is a registered sex offender with convictions for aggravated sexual assault of a child in Denton, Texas, lewd or indecent acts to a child in Marietta, Oklahoma, and failure to register as a sex offender in Texas. In 2023, a child under the age of 12 reported that Kennedy had sexually abused them. Law enforcement officers from the Cooke County Sheriff’s Office and the Denton County Sheriff’s Office investigated the outcry and discovered evidence of Kennedy filming himself sexually abusing the child at a residence in Denton County. Kennedy distributed at least one recording of the child to another individual.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, Denton Police Department, Denton County Sheriff’s Office and Cooke County Sheriff’s Office and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa Miller.