A 40-year-old Vandalia man has been sentenced to five years in prison for distributing child pornography.
Bradley Matthews came to the attention of law enforcement in February 2019 during an FBI undercover investigation of child pornography.
According to the stipulation of facts, an undercover officer engaged in a conversation with Matthews during which he sent the undercover officer three videos depicting child pornography.
In an interview with law enforcement on September 5, 2019, Matthews reportedly admitted to distributing child pornography. When shown the printout of the conversation with the undercover officer that took place on February 5, 2019, Matthews identified himself as the person in the profile picture and admitted that he was the person who had engaged in the conversation with the undercover officer and distributed the child pornography videos.
In addition to the 5-year term of imprisonment, Matthews will serve a ten-year term of supervised release, fined $200, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Springfield Field Office.
