Man gets jail time in 'shocking' child porn case
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By Ann McGlynn | Saturday, February 02, 2008 |
In his apartment in Moline, Christopher Budd collected dozens of the worst child pornography a federal judge and prosecutor say they have seen.
The videos depicted the molestation of infants and toddlers.
Budd, 36 and a former martial arts instructor, will spend 17 1/2 years in federal prison for collecting the videos and photos and disseminating them more than 1,000 times to others. After he is released from prison, he will be supervised by federal authorities for the rest of his life.
He had no previous criminal history.
“The content here, judge, is shocking,” Matt Cannon, assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of Illinois, told Judge Joe B. McDade during Budd’s sentencing Friday. He used the words “sadistic” and “masochistic” to describe many of the videos. “It’s the kind of content that keeps you up at night.”
Budd, Cannon said, watched “these children’s worst days” and then traded the images on the Internet “like baseball cards.” One of the abused children said in a letter to the court that Budd should get 30 years in prison, Cannon said.
David Morrison, Budd’s attorney, noted authorities could not find any evidence Budd had inappropriate contact with anyone under the age of 18. Nor did Budd produce any of the videos, he said.
His sister, Robin Andresen of Charlotte, N.C., wrote in a letter to the court that her brother is “no deviant, no monster and no threat.” She testified Friday that she thought a heavy prison sentence would not solve Budd’s problem but that he needed treatment instead.
Morrison asked for a sentence of 10 to 12 years. Cannon asked for 20 years. McDade sentenced Budd on the low end of the federal sentencing guideline assigned to his case — 210 months.
“I don’t perceive you as a monster,” McDade told Budd, or as a “dirty old man” who hangs around playgrounds. “I don’t see you as a pervert. I do see you as someone who has an addiction, a dangerous addiction.”
McDade acknowledged that the four videos submitted under seal to the court for consideration at sentencing were “some of the worst” he has seen as a federal judge.
Budd, who lived at 1721 15th St., No. 5, Moline, was arrested after he took his computer to CNT Computers in Moline for repair. The owner told police he found a file on the computer titled “A three year old being raped.”
Budd admitted he downloaded images of child pornography for a couple of years before his arrest, Cannon said in his sentencing memo to the court.
“He also admitted that he is addicted to child pornography and that he found the images to be both disturbing and arousing at the same time,” Cannon said.
Budd told police “his addiction was progressing because the content of the pictures needed to be more graphic as time passed.”
Ann McGlynn can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@qctimes.com.
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