Indiana man sentenced to 10 ½ years for transporting child pornography

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — A local man was sentenced to 10.5 years in federal prison on Friday after pleading guilty to transporting and possessing child pornography. The sentence resulted from an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Hamilton County Metro Child Exploitation Task Force.

Christopher Anderson, 38, of Evansville, Ind., was sentenced to 126 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Larry J. McKinney. Anderson was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release following his release from prison. During the period of supervised release Anderson must comply with sex offender treatment and may not have unsupervised contact with minors, among other conditions.

"Thanks to the tireless work of our local and federal partners, we are sending a powerful message that there will be no tolerance for child exploitation," said Joseph H. Hogsett, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. "This is just the latest in a growing list of prosecutions as part of our Project Safe Childhood initiative."

On April 26, 2010, while residing in Knox County, Anderson transported a number of images of child pornography to an undercover officer in the United Kingdom. During his arrest on June 14, 2010, Anderson was found to possess additional child pornography videos at his home in Vanderburgh County.

Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Brant Cook, Southern District of Indiana, prosecuted this case.

The investigation is part of ICE's Operation Predator, a nationwide initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who sexually exploit children, and the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood, which marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children using the Internet.

As part of Operation Predator, ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423 or via its online tip form.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.