A Hampton man was sentenced on July 30 to 15 years in prison for attempted coercion and enticement of a child and receipt of child sexual abuse material, along with an additional year for violating the terms of his supervised release.
According to court documents, Christopher Charles Collins, 40, had previously been convicted on October 22, 2018, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia for attempted transfer of obscene material to a person under 16 years old and possession of child sexual abuse material. He was sentenced at that time to six years and six months in prison and a five-year term of supervised release before being released from prison on November 24, 2023.
On October 28, 2025, Collins engaged online with an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl using the social media platform Chatiw under the moniker “SinningPastor.” After moving their communications to Discord, Collins sexually propositioned the undercover officer and arranged to pick her up from a home in Newport News. Law enforcement arrested Collins when he arrived at that location.
A search conducted at the time of his arrest revealed that Collins possessed two cellphones containing over a thousand images attributed as child sexual abuse material.
The sentencing announcement was made by Theophani K. Stamos, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Eric Weindorf, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations Washington D.C.; with assistance from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service Washington D.C. Field Office and Newport News Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa R. McKeel prosecuted the case.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood—a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006—aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse by coordinating federal, state, and local resources.