FORT SMITH – A Harrison man was sentenced yesterday to 84 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release on one count of Receipt of Child Pornography. The Honorable Judge P.K. Holmes, III presided over the sentencing hearing in the U.S. District Court in Fayetteville.
According to court documents, in April of 2021, the Harrison Police Department received a Cyber Tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children which reported that an unknown person was utilizing an account on the Kik Messenger application to upload media files including child pornography. An investigation into the IP addresses and the Kik account information revealed the account owner to be Christopher Scott Hafar, age 46, of Harrison, Arkansas. Harrison officers arrested Hafar on July 21, 2021, and Hafar later admitted to receiving child pornography using his Kik account through his cellphone.
U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes of the Western District of Arkansas made the announcement.
Harrison Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations Fayetteville, and the Northwest Arkansas Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Still prosecuted the case.
This case was prosecuted 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 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.justice.gov/psc.