St. Augustine, Fla. — A St. Augustine man will spend the next 27 years in federal prison for recording himself sexually abusing a child.
Christopher Lee Smith, 43, was sentenced on April 15.
According to court documents, he engaged in an online text conversation with an undercover FBI agent who was posing as the parent of a child.
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In that conversation, Smith revealed that he had sexually abused a child twice and sent a video of the abuse to the agent. Investigators were able to confirm that the victim was 13 years old.
Agents arrested Smith in St. Augustine in September 2021. They seized his cell phone and found months of sexually explicit conversations with the child. The phone also contained other videos and photos depicting children being sexually abused.
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Smith was already a registered sex offender. He was convicted in 2012 after traveling from St. Johns County to Georgia to meet an 8-year-old for sexual activity.
This case was 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.
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