Missouri man sentenced on child pornography charges

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A Richmond, Missouri, man will spend more than a decade behind bars after admitting to distributing child pornography.

A federal judge sentenced 32-year-old Zachary Ryan Taylor to 15 years in federal prison. He will serve the full sentence without being eligible for parole. Taylor was also ordered to pay more than $25,000 in restitution to the victims.

After he is released from prison Taylor will serve 20 years of supervised probation. He is required to register as a sex offender on federal and state sex offender websites.

According to court records, Taylor pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography in March 2023.

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Taylor admitted he participated in a Kik chatroom and communicated with someone who turned out to be an undercover FBI employee. During their chat, Taylor said he was sexually active with a child victim, according to court records. He also sent the undercover FBI employee an image of child pornography that he claimed was the child victim, although investigators do not believe the photo actually was a depiction of the child victim. Taylor also claimed he had been with a second young victim.

The FBI and law enforcement executed a search warrant at Taylor’s home in Richmond, Missouri, in Dec. 2021. At that time investigators seized several cell phones and other electronic devices, which they say contained hundreds of videos and images of child pornography.

The Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force also investigated two cybertips, from Musical.ly and Kik, which reported that Taylor had uploaded images and videos of child pornography to those platforms.