Albany County Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Offenses

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Christopher Pratt, age 57, of Albany, pled guilty today to the distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography.   The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As part of his guilty plea before United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino, Pratt admitted that he distributed and received child pornography over the internet through a peer-to-peer file sharing program.  Pratt also admitted that he possessed numerous images of child pornography on his personal laptop, and that he created a folder on his laptop, labeled “JB” for “jailbait,” in which he stored images of child pornography that he had downloaded from the internet.  

Pratt faces at least 5 years and up to 20 years in prison, and a term of supervised release of at least 5 years and up to life, when he is sentenced on December 20, 2021.  A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and other factors.  Additionally, Pratt will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

This case was investigated by the FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force, including investigators from the Albany County Sheriff’s Office and New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rachel Williams and Katherine Kopita. 

This case is prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood.  Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorney’s 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc