Biloxi Man Sentenced to over 11 years in Prison for Possession of Child Pornography

Gulfport, Miss. -- A Biloxi, Mississippi, man was sentenced to 136 months in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for possession of child pornography.

Christopher Lee Parker, 36, was sentenced on April 12, 2024, in U.S. District Court in Gulfport. In addition to Parker's term of imprisonment, the Court ordered restitution for victims in the amount of $31,000, and imposed an assessment of $2,000 under the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act of 2018.

According to court documents, Parker was identified in Cyber Tipline Reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as the user of social media accounts discussing the trading of child exploitation materials. These Cyber Tipline Reports were forwarded to law enforcement for investigation. A federal search warrant obtained for Parker's Biloxi residence resulted in the recovery of Parker's cell phones, in which Parker, at times using mobile applications, possessed over 5,000 visual depictions, in still and video formats, of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct with some images including minors who had not reached 12 years of age.

Parker was indicted by a federal grand jury in April of 2023. He pled guilty on December 18, 2023, to possession of visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

U.S. Attorney Todd W. Gee and Acting Special Agent in Charge Eric DeLaune of Homeland Security Investigations made the announcement.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations with the assistance from the Cyber Crime Division of the Mississippi Attorney General's Office and the Biloxi Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Jones prosecuted the case.

This 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 please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.