Junction City Man Sentenced to 17 Years in Federal Prison for Repeatedly Possessing and Distributing Child Pornography

EUGENE, Ore.—A Junction City, Oregon man with two prior child pornography convictions was sentenced to federal prison today for repeatedly possessing and distributing child pornography online.

Christopher Lyn Sparks, 59, was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison and a lifetime term of supervised release.

According to court documents, in 2006 and 2013, Sparks was convicted of federal child pornography charges and violating the terms of his supervised release. In November 2023, following his second release from prison, Sparks was required to serve a lifetime term of supervised release.

In May 2024, officers with the Portland Police Bureau alerted Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents to a series of CyberTipline reports related to child sex abuse material from several online social media and messaging platforms including Google, X (formerly Twitter), Tumblr, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Telegram, and TikTok.

Investigators traced multiple accounts from those CyberTips to Sparks and learned he had resumed distributing child sexual abuse material online through these platforms while still under federal supervision. An HSI agent, posing as a person interested in these materials, contacted Sparks through his Telegram account. Sparks exchanged messages with the agent and discussed sexually exploiting children. The agent discovered that Sparks was openly offering to trade and advertising child pornography using his Telegram account.  On June 11, 2024, Sparks was arrested after agents executed a federal search warrant and seized his phone, which contained child pornography.

On July 9, 2024, Sparks was charged by criminal information with possessing and distributing child pornography. On December 11, 2024, he pleaded guilty to both charges.

This case was investigated by HSI with assistance from the FBI and the Portland Police Bureau. It was prosecuted by William M. McLaren, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.

Anyone who has information about the physical or online exploitation of children are encouraged to contact HSI at (866) 347-2423 or submit a tip online at report.cybertip.org.

Federal law defines child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor. It is important to remember child sexual abuse material depicts actual crimes being committed against children. Not only do these images and videos document the victims’ exploitation and abuse, but when shared across the internet, re-victimize and re-traumatize the child victims each time their abuse is viewed. To learn more, please visit the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at www.missingkids.org.

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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.