Knoxville, TN (WOKI) A Kingston man is facing life in prison after being convicted Wednesday of multiple federal child sex crimes.
Department of Justice officials announcing 34-year-old Christopher Edward Allen was convicted of nine counts involving child pornography and attempting to entice minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity.
Specifically, the nine counts include:
- Three counts of attempting to entice a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity
- One count of producing child pornography
- Two counts of attempting to produce child pornography
- Two counts of transporting a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct
- One count of transferring obscene material
The DOJ said Allen used various social media platforms to find minors online and, once identified, baited them over social media to engage in “unlawful sexual activity” and to “send nude images of themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct.”
There were two instances where Allen paid the minors for nude images, which he later emailed to himself using the minor’s name as the subject line, the DOJ said. He also sent sexually explicit images of himself to minors.
In another instance, Allen met a minor in person at his workplace, where he added them to one of his social media accounts. Later that night, he talked with the minor through social media.
Authorities found out about the messages and, with consent from the minor’s parents, assumed the minor’s identity on social media two days later, according to the DOJ.
Allen was later arrested at a Kingston park after arriving with the intent to meet the minor.
Sentencing for Allen is scheduled for February 6, 2025 at 2:00 p.m.; he faces a sentence of up to life in prison.
