A Champaign man has been sentenced to nearly eleven years in federal prison for receiving and possessing child pornography. Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm sentenced 37-year-old Mathew McDuffie in Urbana on Monday. In rendering the sentence, the court noted the humiliating and degrading sexual abuse of toddlers depicted in McDuffies’s images of child pornography.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elly Peirson. The charges were investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations and the Champaign Police Department.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Also in Urbana Monday, U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm sentenced an Indiana man to 15 years in prison for attempted enticement, sexual exploitation of a minor. Forty-six year old Caleb Hickman’s sentence was also for attempted receipt of child pornography.
According to court documents the Granger, Indiana man used social media applications to contact and engage with an individual he believed to be a 14-year-old minor. The documents say Hickman made arrangements for the minor to travel from Champaign, Illinois to South Bend, Indiana to engage in sexual activity.
The FBI – Springfield Division – investigated the case with assistance from the FBI Field Office in Indianapolis.
