Show-Me State Times

A Franklin County man was sentenced to 40 years in prison for producing and possessing child sexual abuse material, including the recording of his own sexual abuse of a one-year-old child. U.S. District Judge John A. Ross handed down the sentence on Wednesday.

“This is one of the worst cases of sexual abuse that I’ve seen in 25 years as a judge,” Judge Ross told William Burns before sentencing him. Judge Ross also ordered Burns to pay $146,500 to the victims who appear in the child sexual abuse material he possessed.

William Burns, 41, and Rachel Burns, 35, both pleaded guilty in May to charges related to conspiracy and production of child pornography. William Burns also admitted to additional counts involving possession and further production of such material.

The couple were arrested by University City Police Department officers on July 30, 2023. According to investigators, they believed they were meeting an 11-year-old girl with plans to sexually abuse her. During questioning, Rachel Burns disclosed that her husband had stored illegal images on multiple devices at their home. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office conducted a search and found electronic devices containing evidence along with other items referenced in their plea agreements.

Investigators recovered a video from 2022 showing the couple abusing a one-year-old child and discovered additional videos and images from that year through 2023 depicting the same victim. Authorities also found nearly 14,000 files containing child sexual abuse material on digital storage devices. William Burns used WhatsApp to exchange this content with others.

During an earlier court hearing on September 3, a woman testified that she met William Burns when she was 18 and he was 33. She described how he initially portrayed himself as religious before physically and sexually abusing her, including showing her disturbing videos and expressing intentions to have children for exploitation.

Burns “has just left a trail of wreckage behind him in his life,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes said in court Wednesday. “He was dedicated to the sexual abuse of children.”

Rachel Burns is scheduled for sentencing on October 15; prosecutors will recommend no more than a 35-year term for her.

The case involved investigations by University City Police Department, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, and St. Louis County Police Department, with prosecution led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes.

This prosecution falls under Project Safe Childhood—a national initiative started by the Department of Justice in May 2006 aimed at combating online child exploitation by coordinating federal, state, and local resources for investigating offenders and supporting victims (https://www.justice.gov/psc).