Registered Sex Offender in Kearny County Gets 20 Years

A registered sex offender living in Kearny County was sentenced Monday to 20 years in federal prison for distributing child pornography, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.

Mark A. Wireman, 44, Lakin, Kan., pleaded guilty in July 2015 to five federal counts of distributing child pornography.

Wireman was indicted in Kansas in February 2015. Prosecutors alleged he used his Gmail account to send a photograph of a toddler being sexually assaulted by an adult to another man in Michigan. Google identified the photo as child pornography and filed a CyberTipline report. Investigators followed an electronic trail to Wireman, who made unauthorized use of his neighbor�??s wireless Internet service to send the photograph. On Wireman�??s phone, investigators found more child pornography he had distributed. Investigators learned Wiremen and the man to whom Wireman sent child pornography became friends in prison while Wireman was serving time for a sex offense.

Wireman has prior convictions in 2007 and 1994 in Michigan for sex offenses.

Grissom commended the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the Wichita Police Department, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Homeland Security Investigations and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart for their work on the case.