Fort Worth Man Sentenced To 30 Years In Federal Prison On Child Pornography Convictions

FORT WORTH, Texas — A 40-year-old Fort Worth resident, Christopher Robert Weast, was sentenced on Friday by U.S. District Judge John McBryde to serve 30 years in federal prison following his conviction at trial this summer on two felony child pornography offenses, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

A federal jury convicted Weast in July 2014 on one count of possession of child pornography and one count of receipt of child pornography.

The government presented evidence at trial that the investigation began in June 2012 when an officer with the Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD), working online in an undercover capacity, downloaded child pornography from Weast. The investigation revealed that Weast had numerous files of child pornography on his computer and on an external hard drive.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s 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 sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”

The FWPD and the FBI investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Saleem and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Cole prosecuted.