The Reporter newspaper, Camdenton Missouri

The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

Published November 13, 2024

Richland man sentenced to 40 years in jail

RICHLAND - A Richland, MO man who sexually abused a victim between the ages of 10 and 17 was sentenced in federal court last Tuesday (November 5).

Robert Norman Kennedy, 41, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 40 years in federal prison without parole.

The court also sentenced Kennedy to a lifetime of supervised release following incarceration.

Kennedy will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and will be subject to federal and state sex offender registration requirements, which may apply throughout his life.

According to the court, on January 18, 2024, Kennedy pleaded guilty to transporting a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

The victim told investigators that Kennedy forced her to engage in sex and that he sexually abused her starting at age 10.

After law enforcement began an investigation into the sexual abuse, Kennedy forced the victim to leave Missouri, and they traveled from Missouri through several states where he continued to sexual abuse the victim.

Kennedy and the victim ended up in Georgia, where the victim reported they had lived in a van parked in the driveway of Kennedy’s brother’s residence and in a tent in the back yard.

Law enforcement arrested Kennedy on unrelated charges in December 2022 at which time the victim and Kennedy were living at a motel.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the FBI.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was 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, 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.usdoj.gov/psc

For more information about Internet safety education, visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”