PHILADELPHIA—Christopher Steibing, 34, of Ewing, New Jersey, was sentenced today to 28 years in prison for coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual conduct. Between September 2009 and August 2012, the defendant used the Internet to persuade, induce, entice and coerce a child to engage in illegal sexual activity. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Harvey Bartle, III, ordered 20 years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. The defendant must also register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act and shall be subject to any applicable state sex offender registration requirements.

When she was approximately 13 years old, the victim began receiving messages on AOL from a user claiming to be a 15 year old girl named “Amanda” who would be moving near the victim. The victim had numerous online conversations which “Amanda,” in which “Amanda” repeatedly brought up the topic of sexual intercourse, pressed the victim for information about her sexual history, and claimed to have dated the defendant. “Amanda” also introduced the victim to “Cory,” whom “Amanda” claimed was a 14 year-old male friend whom the victim should talk to. In truth, “Amanda” and “Cory” were actually the defendant, who was using the AOL screen names “AMANDAFOX93” and “NEWJERSEYSTONER” for these fictional personas. Eventually, the victim believed that she was dating “Cory” in an online relationship. The defendant sent the victim several images that purported to be pictures of “Cory’s” naked body and asked the victim to send him nude pictures of her. The victim ultimately agreed, taking photographs of herself in poses suggested by the defendant, including images of child pornography.

Ultimately, the defendant threatened to send nude photographs of the victim to others, including her family, if she did not send him more images. The defendant then made good on this threat and sent degrading and humiliating images of the victim to her family. After the victim decided to stop communicating with “Cory,” she received contacts from other AOL screen names whose language resembled “Cory’s.” In fact, the defendant was the one sending these messages as well. The defendant stored some of his images of the victim on a laptop computer, which, in March 2012, he kept at a girlfriend’s home in Bucks County. He later transported the laptop to his mother’s house in Ewing, New Jersey where, on May 1, 2012, police executed a search warrant and seized the laptop, along with an iPod Touch, which collectively contained hundreds of image files depicting the victim. During their searches, the police and FBI also discovered that the defendant had kept and distributed numerous images of child pornography in which the face of his own daughter, who was no older than 11 years old at the time, had been digitally “morphed” onto the bodies of other minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

The case was investigated by the Falls Township Police Department, the Ewing, New Jersey Police Department, Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joe Khan.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov.