Silver Spring Sex Offender Sentenced to 25 years in Federal Prison for Production of Child Pornography

June 19, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                        Contact Elizabeth Morse
www.justice.gov/usao/md                                             at (410) 209-4885

Greenbelt, Maryland – On June 19, 2017, U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm sentenced Clarence Henry Andrews, age 28, of Silver Spring, Maryland, to 25 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for production of child pornography.

The sentence was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Stephen M. Schenning; Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department; and Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy.

Andrews is a registered sex offender as a result of a 2011 conviction in Prince George’s County Circuit Court for fourth degree sex offense and second degree assault, in connection with his abuse of a nine-year-old boy in the bathroom of a church located in Laurel, Maryland.

According to his plea agreement, in March 2015, Andrews communicated with an 11-year-old male residing in Georgia, via a video game system, Skype, FaceTime, text messages, and telephone. During the course of the communications, Andrews promised to provide the male minor with Advanced Warfare, a video game, in exchange for sexually explicit images and videos of the victim. At times, Andrews invoked religion in order to persuade the minor to produce and share sexually explicit images and videos. Andrews admitted that between approximately 2013 and April 2015, Andrews – using similar means and pattern of conduct – attempted to coerce at least eight additional victims aged 16 and younger to produce images and videos of sexually explicit conduct.

In addition, Andrews admitted that between April 2013 and October 2014, Andrews befriended, through church, a family with an eight-to-nine-year-old female and a seven-to-eight-year-old male, residing in Maryland. Andrews visited the family’s home on several occasions. On one occasion Andrews took the female victim to a downstairs bathroom in the home, told her he would give her cash if she pulled down her pants, and touched and photographed the child’s buttocks. On other occasions while visiting the family, Andrews took the male victim to the downstairs bathroom, engaged in sexual conduct and photographed the child’s buttocks. In January 2017, Andrews was sentenced to a total of ten years imprisonment in Montgomery County Circuit Court for this conduct.

Also as part of his plea agreement, Andrews will be required to continue to register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.

Acting United States Attorney Stephen M. Schenning commended the FBI, Montgomery County Police Department, and Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation, and thanked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Butts County, Georgia, District Attorney’s Office for their assistance. Mr. Schenning thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicolas A. Mitchell and Menaka S. Kalaskar, who are prosecuting the federal case.