Oklahoma sex offender sentenced for transporting child sexual abuse material following HSI Chicago investigation

CHICAGO – An Oklahoma man was sentenced Oct. 27, to 40 years in prison for transporting child pornography that he produced of an 18-month-old infant, and for being a person required to register as a sex offender who committed a felony offense involving a minor, announced Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Chicago Special Agent in Charge R. Sean Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald was joined in the announcement by Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson, of the Northern District of Indiana.

According to court documents, Matthew Alan McNair, 41, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was in Indiana in the summer of 2017 when he utilized an electronic device to take sexually explicit photographs of an 18-month-old infant. McNair took multiple sexually explicit photos of the infant on at least three different dates that summer. After taking those photographs, McNair transported the images in interstate commerce by physically taking his phone back to Oklahoma, where he was living at the time, and uploading them to his cloud account. At the time of this offense, McNair was required to register as a sex offender based upon his 1999 conviction in Illinois for attempted criminal sexual assault.

“The communities we serve can sleep easier knowing that predators like McNair are off our streets,” said HSI Chicago Special Agent in Charge R. Sean Fitzgerald. “HSI, along with our partners, will continue to aggressively investigate and root out child exploitation wherever it may be.”

“My office is committed to holding child sexual predators and producers of child pornography like Mr. McNair accountable for their actions,” said United States Attorney Johnson. “A 40-year sentence shows that this type of criminal conduct brings severe consequences. I want to thank my dedicated prosecutors, the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Homeland Security Investigations and the other state and local law enforcement partners that brought this offender to justice.”

This case was investigated by HSI, along with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Tulsa Police Department Cyber Crimes Unit.

The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Austin M. Berry of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section along with Assistant United States Attorneys in the Northern District of Indiana, Emily A. Morgan and Jennifer Chang.

This case is brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.

HSI is a directorate of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 6,800 special agents assigned to 225 cities throughout the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.

Learn more about HSI’s mission @HSIChicago.