Mountain View man sentenced to 12½ years in prison on child pornography charges

Christopher Campbell used aliases to trick his victims into taking sexually explicit photos, federal authorities said.

MOUNTAIN VIEW – A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a 37-year-old Mountain View man to 12½ years in prison for possessing child pornography and enticing underage girls to engage in the production of pornography, prosecutors said.

A grand jury indicted Christopher Raymond Campbell last August, charging him with one count each of coercion and enticement of a minor, receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

In January, Campbell pleaded guilty to the coercion and enticement of a minor and the possession of child pornography charges. U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed the receipt of child pornography charge at his sentencing Wednesday.

According to his plea agreement, Campbell admitted that he used his iPhone and other electronic devices to communicate with multiple underage girls between March 2021 and March 2022, prosecutors said. Campbell used screen names and aliases to trick his victims into taking and sharing sexually explicit photos of themselves.

Campbell, in one case, pretended to be a young girl to gain the trust of his victims, prosecutors said.

In addition, Campbell admitted to using the recording function on his phone to take and save live video of his communications with the girls, giving his victims instruction on how to take sexually explicit photos, and enticing one girl to send him at least 10 videos of herself engaged in sexually explicit conduct, prosecutors said.

Campbell is scheduled to begin serving his prison term on July 28. Following his release from prison, he must serve five years of supervised release, prosecutors said.