A Maryland man was sentenced today to 14 years in prison for traveling interstate to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and first-degree child sexual abuse of a minor, with aggravating circumstances.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Criminal Division.
Christopher Ham, 48, of Largo, Maryland, pleaded guilty in December 2021, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was sentenced by the Honorable Trevor N. McFadden. Following his prison term, Ham will be placed on five years of supervised release. He also must pay $100,000 in restitution to the victim and register as a sex offender for life.
According to the government’s evidence, Ham was identified during a law enforcement investigation into the sexual abuse of an eight-year-old girl. Ham entered into a relationship with a woman who resided in the District of Columbia, and who had access to the little girl. In October of 2019, he traveled from Maryland into the District of Columbia, where he took advantage of this relationship to sexually abuse the child.
Ham was arrested on April 6, 2021, and he has remained in custody.
This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. The task force is composed of FBI agents, along with other federal agents and detectives from northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. The task force is charged with investigating and bringing federal charges against individuals engaged in the exploitation of children and those engaged in human trafficking. The FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Prince George’s County, Maryland Police Department provided valuable assistance in the investigation.
This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Graves and Special Agent in Charge Jacobs commended the work of those who investigated the case from the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Metropolitan Police Department’s (MPD) Youth Investigations Division. They also commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jocelyn Bond and Amy E. Larson, who prosecuted the case.
