URBANA, Ill. – A Decatur, Ill., man, Christopher Bailey, 40, of the 500 block of West Center St., has been ordered to serve 27 years (324 months) in federal prison for distribution and possession of child pornography. Bailey was ordered to remain on federal supervised release for 15 years following his release from prison and will be required to register as a sex offender. Bailey has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals since his arrest on July 7, 2020.
As part of its sentence, the court found that Bailey has engaged in a pattern of sexual abuse based on his prior conviction in 2008, in California, for sexually abusing two children, aged five and six, and continuing child sexual abuse of children aged eight and five.
On Oct. 16, 2020, Bailey entered a plea of guilty to the indictment that charged him with two counts of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elly M. Peirson prosecuted the case. The charges were investigated by Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the Decatur Police Department; and, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force led by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.