Repeat Sex Offender Pleads Guilty To Distribution Of Child Pornography

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – August 11, 2014 – Christopher Troy Sullivan, 40, of Joelton, Tennessee, pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Nashville to distribution of child pornography, announced David Rivera, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Sullivan is a registered sex offender, having been previously convicted in 2004 of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor in Davidson County, Tenn.  He now faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison

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 home in Joelton, Tenn.  Analysis of the equipment revealed that Sullivan had obtained over 1,400 images of child pornography, which were located in hidden electronic file folders.

Sullivan is scheduled for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger on October 27, 2014, at 2:30 p.m.

This matter 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.