Staff report

A Trumbull County man who groomed and sexually exploited dozens of minors across multiple states, producing thousands of child sexual abuse images, has been sentenced to 50 years in federal prison, authorities said.

Christopher M. Callaway, 41, of West Farmington, received the sentence July 1 from U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Gaughan after pleading guilty in March to six counts of child sexual exploitation, including receipt, distribution, and possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio news release.

He also was ordered to pay $40,000 under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act.

From 2015 to 2022, Callaway targeted vulnerable girls aged 10 to 17 on social media platforms and messaging apps like KIK, Snapchat and Facebook, often seeking them in “daddy-daughter” online groups, the release states.

He manipulated victims with affection, gifts, money, sex toys and lingerie, coercing them into producing explicit images and videos for online distribution. Callaway also sent victims sexually explicit content of himself, court documents show.

Federal investigators found Callaway produced CSAM involving more than 40 minors, with 21 identified, mostly from outside Ohio, including one from New Zealand, the release states.

He traveled to Virginia and Florida to rape victims and record the crimes, and brought several minors to live with him in Ohio. A search of his residence uncovered electronic devices with more than 20,000 images and videos of CSAM.

The FBI Cleveland Division and Ohio Attorney General’s Office Bureau of Criminal Investigation led the probe, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer J. King, as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation, according to the release.

Callaway also is serving an eight-to-10-year state prison sentence at Belmont Correctional Institution for related charges involving a 13- to-15-year-old victim, and has been designated a Tier 3 sex offender in Ohio.