Sex Offender Sentenced to 15 Years in Federal Prison for Child Exploitation Offense

Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that PHILIP FROST, 33, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Robert M. Chatigny in Hartford to 180 months of imprisonment, followed by 15 years of supervised release, for a child exploitation offense.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in March 2016, Frost was convicted in state court of possessing child pornography in the second degree.  On October 1, 2019, while Frost was on special parole and residing in a halfway house in Hartford, a staff member at the halfway house discovered Frost was in possession of a smartphone, which was a violation of Frost’s parole conditions.  The staff member secured the phone and contacted Frost’s parole officer.  That evening, before the parole officer arrived the next morning, Frost used another resident’s phone to delete the history of his various online messaging accounts.

Subsequent analysis of Frost’s smartphone revealed images of child pornography, including images depicting the sexual abuse of prepubescent children.

The investigation further revealed that, between July 31, 2019 and October 1, 2019, Frost engaged in sexual conduct with a 15-year-old victim.  Frost provided a cellphone to the minor victim so that they could communicate, and he enticed the minor victim to send him images of the minor victim engaging in sexually explicit conduct.  Frost also received these images on his smartphone.

Frost was on the Connecticut Sex Offender Registry at the time this criminal conduct.

Frost has been detained since October 2, 2019.  On October 30, 2020, he pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography.

State sexual assault charges against Frost are pending.

This matter was investigated by the Connecticut State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret M. Donovan.

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.