Christopher Troy Sullivan, 41, of Joelton, Tennessee, was sentenced yesterday, by United States District Court Judge Aleta A. Trauger, to 15 years in prison for distribution of child pornography, announced David Rivera, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.
According to court documents, from approximately December 2010 through May 2012, Sullivan possessed and distributed child pornography. Sullivan admitted that he created a fake profile on the social media website “Facebook" to initiate and maintain an online relationship with a teenage girl over the course of several months. During the relationship, Sullivan obtained hundreds of nude and sexually explicit images of the girl. He then distributed those images to others and created additional false online profiles, pretending to be the girl in order to induce other teenage girls to also send him nude images.
Law enforcement officers from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department seized several items of electronic equipment from Sullivan’s house. Analysis of the equipment revealed that Sullivan had obtained over 1,400 images of child pornography, which were located in hidden electronic file folders.
Upon his release, Sullivan will remain on supervised release for ten years and will be required to participate in sex offender treatment, among other conditions. Sullivan is a registered sex offender who was previously convicted in 2004 of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor in Davidson County, Tennessee.
This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, the Cheatham County Sheriff’s Department, the Davidson County Probation and Parole Office, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Lynne T. Ingram and Louis A. Crisostomo.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
