KNOXVILLE, Tenn.- On July 27, 2016, Christopher Anthony Burkett, 43, of Knoxville, Tenn., was sentenced by the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan, Chief U.S. District Judge, to serve 250 months in prison as a result of his conviction for using a minor to produce and distribution of child pornography. Following his release from prison, Burkett will be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for 25 years and will be required to register with the sex offender registry in any state in which he resides, works, or attends school.

Pursuant to his plea agreement, Burkett admitted that, from July 2014 through September 2014, he posed as a 19-year-old man on Facebook and solicited two minors to send pornographic images of themselves to him via the Internet.  Burkett also admitted to sending pornographic images of one minor victim to another minor victim via the Internet in order to coax the recipient to send him additional pornographic pictures of herself.

 
This investigation was conducted locally by Knoxville Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Morris represented the United States. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend
and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.