Pevely Man Accused of Recording Abuse

(Pevely, MO) A man from Pevely, 36 year old Matthew Gamel, is accused of recording his sexual abuse of a minor. He was arrested and appeared in federal court in St. Louis Tuesday. Gamel was indicted November 8th on one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of receipt of child pornography. He pled not guilty during the court appearance. The indictment accuses Gamel of coercing a minor into producing child pornography, between January 1st, of 2021 and February 22nd of this year, and receiving child pornography between January 1st of 2021 and August 1st of this year. A motion seeking to have Gamel held in jail until trial says he recorded his sexual abuse of the minor when she was under the age of 14. The sexual exploitation of a minor charge is punishable by 15 to 30 years in prison. The receipt of child pornography charge is punishable by five to 20 years in prison. Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty. The Pevely Police Department and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes is prosecuting the case.