ALBANY, NEW YORK – Christopher Pratt, age 58, of Albany, was sentenced today to 148 months in prison for distributing, receiving and possessing child pornography, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
As part of his prior guilty plea before United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino, Pratt admitted that he distributed and received child pornography files over the internet through a peer-to-peer file sharing program. Pratt also admitted that he possessed numerous child pornography files on his personal laptop, and that he created a folder on his laptop – labeled “JB” for “jailbait” – in which he stored child pornography images that he downloaded from the internet. The files included depictions of the sexual abuse and rape of prepubescent children and toddlers.
United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino also imposed a 15-year term of supervised release, which will start after Pratt is released from prison, and ordered payment of $18,000 in restitution for the child victims of Pratt’s offenses.
This case was investigated by the FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force, including investigators from the Albany County Sheriff’s Office and forensic analysts from the New York State Police Computer Crime Unit, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rachel Williams and Katherine Kopita.
This case is prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood. Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorney’s 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc