Kane County man sentenced to 17 years in child porn case

A Kane County man has been sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for producing and sharing child pornography, authorities said Monday.

Matthew Brown, 31, of Montgomery, took photographs of a prepubescent minor and shared them with users on an online messaging application. He also possessed more than 240 other photographs and videos of child pornography.

Brown pleaded guilty last year to federal charges of production and transportation of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis on Thursday also ordered Brown to pay $80,292 in restitution to the known victim depicted in the images and video.

According to evidence in the case, Brown accessed the messaging application and frequented chat rooms set up for the purpose of exchanging child pornography. One of the users with whom Brown began communicating in 2015 was an undercover law enforcement officer. Brown sent the undercover officer several images and videos of child pornography, including a sexually explicit photograph of a young minor Brown had personally taken.

The images and videos were submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which determined Brown possessed two series of child pornography. Authorities have been able to identify some of the children in the images and videos shared by Brown and others.

Some of those victims submitted statements in advance of Brown's sentencing, detailing the harm caused by the production, distribution and possession of their images by individuals like Brown.