Palmetto man gets decades in prison after FBI finds 18,000 child sexual abuse images
A judge sentenced a 46-year-old Palmetto-area man to federal prison for producing child sexual abuse material.
U.S. District Judge William F. Jung sentenced Christopher Thompson to 60 years in federal prison on Friday after he previously pleaded guilty to possessing thousands of images and videos depicting child sexual abuse, according to court records.
Prosecutors say Thompson possessed over 18,000 images and videos depicting child sexual abuse in total, filming at least nine of them himself.
Thompson’s attorney declined to provide comment to the Bradenton Herald Friday afternoon.
Court records show Thompson pleaded guilty to two counts of producing child sexual abuse material in February. The charges carried a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison with a maximum of up to 30 years each, according to Florida Statutes.
Parents of victims addressed the Tampa courtroom Friday, asking the judge to give Thompson the maximum sentence. The family of the victims, prosecutors and Thompson all agreed that he should receive the maximum possible sentence of 60 years.
Palmetto man sentenced to 60 years
Deputies with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office arrested Thompson in April 2022 after detectives say a 5-year-old girl told her parents Thompson lured her from a birthday party, showed her homemade child sexual abuse material and then raped her, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
While those charges still await Thompson in Manatee County, Thompson’s arrest led to federal charges after the discovery of child sexual abuse material in his possession, according to court documents.
The FBI forensically reviewed Thompson’s electronic devices, where investigators say they found thousands of images or videos depicting child sexual abuse on two phones, an external hard drive, an SD card and a box of DVDs.
In addition to the more than 18,000 images and videos depicting child sexual abuse that detectives say they found in Thompson’s possession, investigators say they also found approximately four videos and five images of child sexual abuse they say Thompson himself produced.
The material produced by Thompson showed him sexually abusing girls as young as 3 and as old as 14, prosecutors say.
At least nine victims have been identified according to court documents.
Thousands of images and videos, deputies say
Based on videos that date back to 2010, detectives said Thompson has a long history of touching and filming young girls.
The sheriff’s office said the crimes often took place when children went over to Thompson’s house to play with his own children.
During a girls’ sleepover at Thompson’s house in February 2022, he got in bed with the children, detectives said. A 7-year-old victim reported to her mother and investigators that Thompson began touching her underwear, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
Detectives say another incident happened at one of Thompson’s children’s birthday parties, where Thompson allegedly filmed an 11-year-old girl’s underwear at a trampoline park.
Several of the videos found on Thompson’s electronic devices were much more graphic in nature, according to court documents.
Thompson still faces several charges in Manatee County, including capital sexual battery, exposing minors to harmful images and video voyeurism, according to court records. He is expected to appear in court on Aug. 1.
