Missouri woman is sentenced for posting nude photos of 15-year-old on Facebook

A Missouri woman was sentenced Tuesday to a year in federal prison for posting nude photos of a 15-year-old girl on the girl’s Facebook page.

Michelle Renee McCoy, 49, of Carl Junction, pleaded guilty earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Springfield to possession of child pornography.

McCoy, an acquaintance of the 15-year-old victim, found pictures the girl had taken of herself on the girl’s phone.

McCoy sent them to her own phone. She then posted them on the girl’s Facebook page and changed the girl’s Facebook password so she could not remove the photos after they were posted.

An attorney for McCoy asked for probation, arguing that she is not a pedophile or typical child pornographer, but that she posted the pictures as a way to shame the victim and teach her a lesson.

“What Mrs. McCoy did was mean and stupid,” her attorney said in a written sentencing memorandum. “She has been punished already in a variety of ways, including lifetime registry as a sex offender. Prison will not erase the victim’s embarrassment or hurt.”

Prosecutors argued that while it was not a typical child porn case, the victim still was harmed. They asked for a three-year prison sentence.

“The victim was subjected to the humiliation of having all of her friends and family, some of who were minors themselves, viewing the sexually explicit photographs,” federal prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum.

This story was originally published May 31, 2016 at 11:40 AM with the headline "Missouri woman is sentenced for posting nude photos of 15-year-old on Facebook."