Westerville Man, Christopher Sammons Charged with Sexually Exploiting 5 Year Old
A Westerville man is being arraigned this afternoon on charges related to creating child pornography of his alleged sexual abuse of a five year old.
Christopher M. Sammons, 26, is scheduled for arraignment at 2:30pm before Chief U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr.
Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Todd A. Wickerham, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Westerville Acting Police Chief Charles Chandler, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien and other members of the FBI Crimes Against Children Task Force announced the charges.
Wyatt Newmann’s exhibit examines the sexualization of children in photographs photo/courtsy of Wyatt Newmann
According to the court documents, on March 11, an undercover FBI agent in Little Rock, Ark. received a message from Sammons regarding sexual interest in children.
Throughout their conversations, it is alleged that Sammons encouraged the undercover agent to “just make some home made stuff” when discussing the availability of child pornography.
Sammons detailed sexually abusing a six-year-old victim and also allegedly offered to “share her next time if you’re interested in a long term thing.” It is alleged that Sammons sent the agent child pornography files and suggested plans for he and the agent to exchange videos of them sexually abusing minors.
Based on IP address information, the investigative lead was forwarded to FBI Columbus and a Task Force Officer here began communicating with Sammons.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint in this case, Sammons told the task force officer he had been sexually abusing the victim for a year.
Sammons was charged by criminal complaint on April 5 and moved from local to federal custody on April 8.
A grand jury indicted him on April 23, charging him with one count of sexually exploiting a minor (15 to 30 years in prison), two counts of making a notice for child pornography (15 to 30 years in prison) and one count of distributing child pornography (five to 20 years in prison).
U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the investigation of this case by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Heather A. Hill and Special Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer M. Rausch, Director, Franklin County Special Victim’s Unit, who is prosecuting the case.
Criminal complaints and indictments merely contain allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
