A seminary student from Warrensburg has pleaded guilty to charges he attempted to receive child porn through the U.S. Mail.
Western Missouri’s Acting U.S. Attorney David Ketchmark says Nickolas Pinkston, 41, pleaded guilty before a magistrate in Kansas City.
Pinkston had been a seminary student at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis.
Officials say at one time he was responsible for leading confirmation classes for seventh and eighth grade children at St. Ambrose Catholic Elementary School in St. Louis.
By pleading guilty, Pinkston admitted that he attempted to receive child pornography through the mail between May 10 and Oct. 14, 2010.
Postal inspectors identified a mailing to Pinkston’s address on March 12, 2010, from an Ohio-based business that operated an Internet “nudist” Web site. In addition to nude adults, the Web site advertised, and made available to view online, many nude images of pre-pubescent and pubescent minors.
Additionally, the company sold DVD movies depicting nude pre-pubescent minors. Based on his possible interest in child erotica and/or child pornography, inspectors mailed an undercover advertisement from an undercover operation to Pinkston’s residence on May 3, 2010. The mailing was not addressed to a particular individual. The mailed advertisement invited individuals to become a customer with an invitation to request a free specialty catalog specific to the customer’s desires.
On May 24, 2010, inspectors received a completed catalog request form mailed by Pinkston, indicating he wanted to receive a catalog for videos of “Young Teen Girls (13-16)” and “Pre Teen Girls.” Inspectors mailed Pinkston an order form with a listing of available DVDs.
On June 29, 2010, inspectors received the completed movie order form and a $25 money order from Pinkston. Pinkston ordered the DVD entitled, “Children’s sex orgy.” The catalog had described this DVD as containing a video of four 9-to-11-year-old children engaged in a variety of sex acts.
On Oct. 14, 2010, Pinkston presented a delivery notice at the Warrensburg Post Office to pick up the package. When he drove away from the post office with the encrypted DVD containing a child pornography video, he was stopped by police officers and arrested. Forensic examination of two computers taken from his home determined that there was child erotica and child pornography in temporary and unallocated space of the hard drives.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, the government and Pinkston jointly ask the court to impose a sentence of five years in federal prison without parole. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.