ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis man admitted he possessed and shared photos and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children after being arrested for fleeing to Florida while on house arrest.
According to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, 38-year-old Daniel Bert pleaded guilty to a felony charge of transportation of child sexual abuse images.
Bert confessed after the FBI conducted an undercover investigation that showed he shared his interest in young children through the social media messaging apps, Kik and Wickr.
An undercover special agent with the FBI started messaging Bert on Wickr and Bert sent him sexually explicit photos of himself, according to the release.
According to the court plea agreement, Bert also told the agent that he had a sexual interest in young children and that he had a hard drive full of sexually explicit photos of children.
FBI agents were able to confirm what Bert told the agent when they obtained a warrant to search Bert's home. The agents found child sexual abuse material on several electronic devices including laptops, phones and hard drives.
The same day that FBI agents searched Bert’s home, he asked the undercover agent, who he had been messaging throughout the investigation, to log onto an online video chat where Bert played sexually explicit videos of children.
He was arrested in Florida on May 11.
Bert faces at least five years behind bars and additional prison time for removing his GPS monitoring device while on house arrest and fleeing St. Louis.
It is unclear why Bert was originally on house arrest in St. Louis.
A sentencing date has not been set as of Wednesday evening.
