OAKLAND — A Walnut Creek man was sentenced to six years in federal prison for sending videos depicting child sexual abuse to undercover agents who infiltrated an online pornography chatroom, court records show.
Jeffrey Phillips, 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar. The sentence was handed down in April but hasn’t been previously reported.
The sentence is roughly half of what prosecutors asked for in a sentencing memorandum, and even lower than the eight-year prison term requested by Phillips’ lawyer.
Phillips was charged in early 2020, after he joined a Kik messenger chat that authorities say was known for hosting child pornography. He allegedly talked to two undercover agents, including one who posed as a nanny, about how he’d molested a girl in a hot tub, and sent the agent videos depicting a prepubescent girl being raped by a man.
He also asked the “nanny” to molest a 9-year-old girl purportedly in her care, and “please make a video,” according to prosecutors.
“In the course of his offense conduct, not satisfied with simply possessing, viewing and sharing images depicting horrific sexual violence against very young children, defendant actively sought the creation of new child pornography using objects and conduct he described as sexually satisfying to himself,” assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Lee wrote in a sentencing memo.
In an interview with a mental health professional that occurred after Phillips was charged, he claimed all his talk about prior sexual crimes was fake and that he was just telling a “pushy” undercover agent what he believed they wanted to hear. He said he knew the person wasn’t really a nanny and that he didn’t carefully inspect the videos before sending them. He said the child pornography was just a “fraction” of what he was looking at online, according to court records.
Phillips will receive credit for the two years he spent in jail awaiting sentence. After his prison term he’ll be placed on supervised release for five years. He is still at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, pending transfer to the Bureau of Prisons system.
