PENSACOLA, FL—B Christopher P. Gunn, 31,
previously of Walton County, Florida, was indicted today on multiple charges
involving the online sextortion and cyberstalking of young girls ranging in age
from 13 to 17 years old. The indictment was announced by Pamela C. Marsh,
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
The federal indictment alleges that
Gunn, who was recently arrested on related charges in Alabama, extorted images
and videos of minor females in “various states of undress, naked, and engaging
in sexually explicit conduct.” The indictment also charges that Gunn violated
federal cyberstalking statutes by engaging these females online with the
“intent to injure, harass, and cause substantial emotional distress.” The
conduct with which Gunn is charged in the Northern District of Florida is
alleged to have occurred between October 2009 and March 2011. In total, the indictment
alleges that Gunn victimized 11 minor females who resided in various states
throughout the nation.
Gunn is currently in custody in
Montgomery, Alabama on a federal indictment that also charges him with the
production and possession of child pornography. If convicted on all charges in
the Florida indictment, Gunn faces over 50 years in federal prison.
This case is being brought as part of
Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the
Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual
exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the
Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe
Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend,
and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and
rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit
http://www.justice.gov/psc/.
The case was investigated by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and the Walton County Sheriff’s Office. The case is
being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David L. Goldberg. An
indictment is merely a formal charge by a grand jury that a defendant has
committed a violation of federal criminal law. All defendants are presumed
innocent unless and until the government proves their guilt beyond a reasonable
doubt to the satisfaction of a jury at trial.
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