Chicago Man Sentenced to 28 Years in Federal Prison for Producing and Sharing Child Pornography

CHICAGO — A Chicago man has been sentenced to 28 years in federal prison for producing hundreds of photos and videos of child pornography.

CHRISTOPHER M. HALL, 44, arranged three sexual encounters for two underage girls whom he met through online mobile chat applications.  One of the girls was 12 years old when she first encountered Hall online, and he groomed her through sexually explicit communications that included sending her child pornography.  Hall directed each girl to write “Owned by CH” on her body, and then photograph it and send the image to Hall.

To set up the sexual encounters, Hall took or used sexually explicit photos of the girls and posted them in sex advertisements on Craigslist.  Hall then directed the girls to have sexual intercourse with him and several men who responded to the ads, and took videos and photos of the encounters.  Two of the encounters took place in Aurora, while another occurred in Gary, Ind.

Hall pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of inducement and enticement of a minor for the production of child pornography and one count of knowingly transporting child pornography.  U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin on Monday sentenced Hall to 28 years in federal prison.

The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and James M. Gibbons, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.

The investigation began when one of Hall’s victims went missing from her home in Michigan.  Law enforcement identified email communications between the girl and Hall.  As part of the investigation, law enforcement searched Hall’s residence and discovered a collection of child pornography that included more than 7,000 images and videos of minors.  Authorities were able to identify dozens of the exploited children in the videos and images, some of whom were less than 12 years old at the time the images were created.  Nearly 30 of those victims submitted statements to the Court in advance of sentencing, detailing the harm caused by the exploitation of their images by individuals like Hall.