A former teacher at a Philadelphia middle school was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after he asked a 12-year-old boy to send him explicit videos and was in possession of child pornography, numerous sources reported.
Christopher O’Sullivan, 32, was a teacher at Belmont Charter Middle School when he began sending sexually suggestive text messages to a 12-year-old male student of his over several weeks in June and July 2019, ABC 6 reported Monday.
#BREAKING Former Philadelphia middle school teacher sentenced to 15 years in child porn casehttps://t.co/Pn7RU9MM8S
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The child’s parents discovered a photo of their son’s genitalia on the boy’s phone. The image was sent to O’Sullivan, leading the parents to notify the school, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. O’Sullivan was arrested shortly after.
O’Sullivan would pressure the boy to send “sexy video” and to describe his experiences with masturbation, the Inquirer reported. He would also pressure him about in-person sexual encounters.
“I just wanna make sure it’s something you actually WANT to do,” O’Sullivan told the boy in one exchange about a “sexy video.”
O’Sullivan would apply more pressure when the boy seemed hesitant.
“I wanna see if you’re all talk or actually a man of your word this time,” he told the boy in another text exchange, according to the Inquirer.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents searched O’Sullivan’s apartment, where they found sexual images of the student and at least 100 other young boys on his devices, according to the Inquirer.
Prosecutors also said they found photos of naked infants and teenage boys that appeared to be from O’Sullivan’s trip to South Africa in 2013, the Inquirer reported.
O’Sullivan pleaded guilty in 2020 to charges of enticing a minor and production of child pornography.
O’Sullivan “was in a position of trust, and took advantage of a child’s vulnerability in order to exploit him in a most egregious manner for his own sexual gratification,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Morgan wrote in court filings, according to the Inquirer.
He was given the 15-year mandatory minimum sentence and was ordered to complete 10 years’ probation and pay $5,200 in restitution to his victim after his release, the Inquirer reported. O’Sullivan’s attorney Michael Harris Fienman said his client is “concentrating on his rehabilitation,” according to the Inquirer.
Numerous teachers have been charged with possessing child pornography.
In April, a first-grade teacher at a Texas school was charged with possessing child pornography after investigators say they found numerous images showing an adult male engaging in sexual intecourse with children as young as three. (RELATED: First-Grade Teacher At Texas Public School Charged With Possession Of Child Pornography)
In Minnesota, a substitute teacher was arrested for allegedly “sextorting” children by pretending to be a girl on the internet and then threatening to expose sexually explicit photos.