A Chicago-area man has been sentenced to 37 years in federal prison after admitting to sexually exploiting nearly 100 children online. According to federal prosecutors, Shaun Healy, 45, contacted minors using Snapchat in 2022 and convinced them to send sexually explicit images and videos. Healy often pretended to be a young girl on social media in order to gain the trust of his victims and instructed them on how to create and share the abusive material.
Prosecutors stated that Healy extorted the children by threatening to release their images if they did not comply with his demands for more content. When law enforcement arrested Healy at his home in Elburn, Illinois, in December 2022, they discovered a password-protected album on his phone containing folders organized by the victims’ Snapchat usernames. Each folder included images of the child and catalogued explicit material produced at Healy’s direction.
Healy pleaded guilty last year to charges related to child exploitation. U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman imposed the sentence on February 12, 2026, during a hearing in Chicago’s federal court.
The case was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Matthew J. Scarpino, Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Chicago. The Illinois Attorney General’s Office’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force also assisted with the investigation.
“Defendant is a child predator,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Saqib Mohammad Hussain and Elly Moheb argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “And not just a child predator, but one who ruthlessly sexually exploited young girls and prided himself on it. What defendant made these children do will affect them for the rest of their lives in ways that we cannot appreciate.”
The prosecution was part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a national initiative that brings together federal, state, and local resources to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse by identifying offenders and supporting victims.
Individuals who believe they are victims of sexual exploitation are encouraged to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at https://www.missingkids.org/ or call 1-800-843-5678 at any time.
More information about Homeland Security Investigations’ efforts can be found at Know2Protect.gov.
