Seth Allen Barger, a registered sex offender, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison after admitting in federal court that he possessed child sexual abuse material and initiated a sexual conversation with a girl who was younger than 12 years old, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
Barger, 42, who lives in the Jefferson County portion of Fenton, was sentenced on June 5. In November, he pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri to charges of receiving child pornography and enticement of a minor, court records show.
In September 2011, he pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual misconduct in Jefferson County and was ordered to register as a sex offender, according to court documents.
According to the case’s guilty plea, Barger sent sexual messages to the girl through Facebook on July 26, 2023. When a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office detective interviewed Barger about the messages, he told the detective that his account had been hacked.
When another Sheriff’s Office detective examined Barger’s phone, he found 35 images of child pornography. It was determined Barger received the images between June 1, 2023, through Aug. 10, 2023, the guilty plea said.
The Sheriff’s Office, St. Louis County Police and FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Edwards prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as 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 Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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, go to justice.gov/psc.