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http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/201 ... tt-kennell


Former missionary guilty of making child porn while working in Brazil
September 4, 2013|By Desiree Stennett, Orlando Sentinel

A former missionary for the Sanford-based New Tribes Mission pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of production of child pornography and could spend up to 30 years in federal prison for his crime.

Agents began investigating 45-year-old Warren Scott Kennell of New Jersey after receiving a tip that he posted photographs on a website used by people trading child porn, a criminal complaint stated.

According to court documents, Kennell produced child porn involving two 12-year-old girls between December 2008 and August 2011.

On May 31, agents with United States Customs and Border Protection stopped Kennell at Orlando International Airport as he arrived from a flight that originated in Brazil.

He was question by Homeland Security and immigration agents. During an interview, Kennell initially denied that he had acted inappropriately.

When he was searched, investigators said, they found three thumb drives and one external hard drive.

When Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators found two images depicting child pornography on the hard drive, according to the complaint, Kennell admitted he was the man abusing a young girl in one picture and said he was responsible for photographing the second girl.

The sexual abuse happened while he was working as a missionary in Brazil. The victims are members of an indigenous tribe in the Amazon, where Kennell was setting up a church, according to a spokesman for the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida.

A forensic search of Kennell's external hard drive showed more than 940 images of child pornography.

The New Tribes Mission has a public database that lists each of the more than 1,500 missionaries on its website.

dstennett@tribune.com or 407-420-5447

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MORE THAN 940 IMAGES OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON THIS MISSIONARY'S HARD DRIVE!!!

NOW??? NOW does anyone still think this man had only two victims??

NOW??? NOW does anyone shrug off this guy's crime because it "only" happened to tribal children??

NEW TRIBES MISSION!! NOW?? Now do you think it's time to let your people know about this man? BY NAME? Not only your active missionaries but your retirees as well? And people who supported him and welcomed him into their homes and their churches?

NOW don't you wonder who else he might have harmed? Children of missionaries? Children on furlough??

Do NOT think the white children he befriended were safe! Do NOT tell yourself he was "only" attracted to tribal kids! I hate that anyone would minimize this crime because the children whose photos were trafficked had brown skin and black hair!

940 pornographic images of children should make you stop and think!!

For the sake of all the children who might have been hurt by this sicko over the past 20+ years, I hope you will stop and think! And do something to correct your alarming lack of good judgment!

I'm speaking to you, New Tribes Mission! And I will be watching!!

The wise words of Boz tell us that an offender like this is likely to have had many many victims, not just a couple of indigenous children living somewhere few have even heard of.

His computer will be telling a story of who he has been trading images with and it will also be naming the "faithful" who have been supporting the cause. Oh sure, no doubt they are all good folk and knew nothing about this, but the computer doesn't know that and every contact, every e-mail on that computer will be being looked at. OUCH!

This may be one shark in the net, but the net is being looked into by far more powerful fishers of pedophiles than the likes of us and for this we have much to be thankful for. And I suspect that net is going back into the sea, because the hunting grounds are teaming with sharks of all shapes and sizes.

Give up not hope, this is what some of us have been working hard for and some of us have been praying for fervently. The jog is not completed, but this is a big step in the right direction.

Lets be blunt here.

940 images, they were all of little native children so no real worry for NTM.

Wrong!

He was trading images. So who was he trading with?

That will be being determined by those who have the power to do their job thoroughly, without the confines of loyalties to friends or faith.
So lets extrapolate a bit here. It is unlikely that Mr Kennell is the only person in NTM to be involved and trading could be going on between those involved.

Therefore I offer the following advice to NTM, tip your organisation upside down in hunting for others and call in the professionals to do it for you, offering them every possible assistance that you can.

To the average Triber I offer the following advice. Take this matter very seriously, because the little girl or boy you tuck up safely into her bed tonight could be on some perverts computer being traded to other disgusting perverts to do God knows what with. And if you are being told this is all being taken care of, there is nothing to worry about, then start asking questions and considering your future, because we were assured that this would never happen again and it did!

Mr Kennell could be decades behind bars and there is nothing we can do about that. But it is in your hands to care for his victims and to make sure there are no more!

Still choosing silence? Are there any viewers reading this thread who STILL have the opinion that sexual abuse of children is something that a criminal may do one time or a few times and then not continue on ? No way.
So does this mean that the ones returning from overseas with ntm who molested children overseas are not going to do it in their own home countries?
No way. If they have left ntm or been dismissed for "medical" or whatever, they are going to prey on other innocent children in church type organizations where they are least suspected. Why not? They have references of being a good missionary overseas for how many years? They aren't in jail like they should be while volunteering to fill church positions in their home countries.


I saw this Ben Franklin quote on International Justice Mission today. Rings so true in cases of sexual abuse , slavery and human degradation.

"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."

Excellent point. If the theory that Child Abusers stop, just because they cross a border had any validity, then Mr Kennell would not have been carrying his computer. The reason he took the gamble of carrying a computer with illegal material on it across a well guarded border, was probably because he fully intended on using that material. Unless of course he was really stupid and had forgotten what was on his computer or just thought he'd see what U.S. security measures were like! I think we can discount the last two theories.
Also note in the article, he initially denied he had the material on him. ICE knew who they were looking for and what they were looking for, no doubt because someone bravely tipped them off. The next Triber who there is even a hint of suspicion about, I suspect will have a similar reception committee at the border, because that tip proved to be correct.

We will probably never know fully who brought about this arrest and consequent guilty plea, but to them I think many people owe considerable gratitude and I wish to add my admiration for their bravery and diligence.

Me too!

A few more pieces of information in this US Dept of Justice article (underlining added):

http://www.justice.gov/usao/flm/press/2 ... nnell.html

Sanford Missionary Pleads Guilty To Producing Child Pornography

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 4, 2013

Orlando, FL - Acting United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that Warren Scott Kennell (45, West Milford, New Jersey) today pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography. Kennell faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years, up to a maximum of 30 years in federal prison.

According to court documents, between December 2008 and August 2011, Kennell produced images of child pornography involving two minor victims. According to the plea agreement, on May 31, 2013, Kennell arrived at Orlando International Airport from Panama City, Panama. After retrieving his luggage, Kennell was escorted to the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) secondary inspection area.

After Kennell was seated, a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) searched Kennell's belongings and found three thumb drives and one external hard drive. During an interview, Kennell said that he had worked in Brazil as a missionary for the New Tribes Mission, in Sanford, Florida, and that he had been doing missionary work for several years. Kennell told the agent that he had never touched a child in a sexual and/or inappropriate manner, that he had never taken pornographic images of a child, and that there would be no child pornography found on any of the items in his luggage.

After Kennell made these statements, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) computer forensic agents advised that two images of child pornography had been found on Kennell's external hard drive.

When shown the first image, Kennell acknowledged that he was the man in the picture performing a sex act on the prepubescent female. Kennell said that he believed the girl was about 12 years old at the time the picture was taken. When shown the second image, Kennell admitted that he had taken that picture and that the girl in the second image also had been about 12 years old at the time. Kennell further admitted that both images had been taken in Brazil while he was on the missionary assignment.

A forensic examination of Kennell’s external hard drive showed more than 940 images of child pornography. The child victims are members of an indigenous tribe in the Amazon, where Kennell was setting up a church.

This case was investigated by HSI, with assistance from FDLE. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tanya Davis Wilson.

It is another case 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 the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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Evidently there was indeed some sort of plea agreement arrangement, in which Scott agreed to plead guilty.

I haven't been able to find out when the sentencing hearing will be, but it is clear he will spend at least 15 years in prison, and perhaps up to 30 years.

15 years in prison is better than none.

Which is what most other missionary pedophiles have gotten.

By New Zealand standards 15 years minimum is a very hefty sentence, so I am impressed with your law enforcement officers and justice system.

We seem to be very good at catching our criminals, alas our justice system is rather too lenient in sentencing. We get all the usual rubbish about hard childhoods, poverty, alcohol and drugs being reasons for lighter sentences.
However the tide of public opinion is turning and longer sentences are being demanded and now delivered.

As for a criminal engaging in the sorts of activities that Scott Kennell has been convicted of, prison is not a safe place such. Even criminals have a code of ethics and preying on little children is considered the lowest of the low.

So let us press on with seeing that justice is served upon those others who have either committed criminal acts or have covered up for their offending colleagues. For the sake of children worldwide and those of us who have been affected by such despicable criminality.

Here's a Monday "Amen" to that, Bemused!