Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News (b)
Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Christopher Lee Smith (42, St. Augustine) has pleaded guilty to using a child to produce a video of Smith as he sexually abused the child. Smith faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 25, up to 50 years, in federal prison and a potential life term of supervised release. Smith was arrested on September 2, 2021, and has been detained since that time. His sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Smith is a registered child sex offender, having been convicted of traveling to meet a child to commit a sex offense on January 10, 2012.
According to court documents, on June 28, 2021, Smith engaged in online conversation using a social media application (app) with an undercover FBI agent who was posing as the parent of a minor child. Smith advised the undercover agent that he (Smith) wanted to have sex with the “child” and discussed in detail the sexual acts that he wished to perform on the child. On August 30, 2021, Smith and the undercover agent engaged in another online conversation on the app during which Smith advised he had previously sexually abused a particular child, and he (Smith) sent a video to the undercover agent that depicted this child being sexually abused by an adult male. Through further investigation, FBI agents were able to identify both Smith and the child.
On September 2, 2021, FBI agents arrested Smith and seized his cellphone. A search of the phone revealed that Smith had been engaging in sexually explicit online conversations with this same child for several months. On July 31, 2021, Smith drove to meet the child at a retail store in St. Johns County and took the child back to his residence. While at the residence, Smith used the child to produce a video showing Smith sexually abusing the child. Later, Smith sent several clips of this sexual abuse video to the child by text message.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.
It is another 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. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.