Former KCI baggage handler sentenced to federal prison in child pornography case

A former Kansas City International Airport baggage handler who lost his cellphone in a plane’s cargo hold was sentenced Thursday to six years and six months in federal prison for the child pornography images found on it.

James W. Duncan, 34, of Platte City, pleaded guilty in September to attempting to receive child pornography.

Duncan accidentally dropped the phone while loading luggage for Southwest Airlines in March 2012, according to federal authorities.

Duncan contacted his supervisor and asked that someone look for his phone after the plane landed in Dallas. Two Dallas baggage handlers found it, but when they tried to find a telephone number in it, they instead found several child pornography images.

Authorities then found multiple child pornography photographs, including images of toddlers and one image of a naked child in bondage. The case was referred to Kansas City authorities, who found additional images on a phone memory card.

Other images showed sadistic and violent sexual abuse of prepubescent children, including babies.

Duncan admitted to authorities that he had searched and saved child pornography images to his cellphone from different Internet sites and had done so for several years, federal authorities said.

This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 4:04 PM with the headline "Former KCI baggage handler sentenced to federal prison in child pornography case."