Toledo Man Found Guilty of Receipt and Distribution of Child Pornography

TOLEDO – Christopher Frater, 46, of Toledo, Ohio, was found guilty of one count of receipt and distribution of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct after a four-day trial by jury before U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Helmick.

According to court documents and testimony, in 2017, an undercover investigator downloaded files of child pornography from an IP address assigned to the defendant at his then residence in Lima, Ohio. In January 2018, the FBI executed a search warrant at the defendant’s residence and seized his computer and cell phone. A forensic review of the electronics revealed that the defendant was utilizing peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs to receive and distribute child pornography to include 150 images of children under the age of 12 and at least three videos.

Frater, a former Allen County, Ohio Corrections Officer, will be sentenced on March 12, 2024 when he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison, although his sentence will be determined by many factors and may be higher than the mandatory minimum. The judge will determine the appropriate sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and other factors.

This case was investigated by the FBI, Toledo and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara Al-Sorghali and Tracey Tangeman.