Man Sentenced to 30 Years for Child Pornography Production

A man was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for production of and possession of child pornography.

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Freudenthal handed down the sentence to Christopher Michael Willoughby on Tuesday, according to court records.

Willoughby was indicted on four counts of production of child pornography last March and was detained at that time, and pleaded guilty to two counts in August. Two counts of child pornography production were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Homeland Security Investigations, the Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and a local police department investigated the case.

Freudenthal sentenced Willoughby to a 30-year sentence on one count of production of child pornography using a mobile phone to visually record a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct on Aug. 17, 2019. This is the maximum possible sentence under federal sentencing guidelines.

She also sentenced him to a 20-year sentence on one count of possession of child pornography on Jan. 10, 2020. That is the maximum possible sentence under federal sentencing guidelines. It will be served concurrently, or at the same time, as the production sentence.

Willoughby will be on lifetime supervised release after his release from custody, and he will be a registered sex offender.

Freudenthal requested that Willoughby be placed in a prison where he can receive sex offender treatment. She also ordered him to participate in a cognitive-behavioral treatment program.

She ordered him to have no contact with the three minor victims identified only by their initials.

The indictment contained little information about Willoughby including his age, his residence, his prior criminal record, and the nature of the four crimes listed in the indictment that occurred in 2019 and 2020.

However, a statement from Homeland Security Investigations on Feb. 24 said, "Willoughby admitted to producing multiple child pornography videos at the request of unknown co-conspirators online and to being part of an online ring involved in the distribution and production of videos depicting the sexual abuse of children."

During the sentencing hearing, a representative of the U.S. Attorney's Office read statements from the victims' parents. The contents of those statements were not included in court records.