Ex-Philly Teacher Gets 15 Years On Child Porn Charges

PHILADELPHIA — A former Philadelphia teacher will spend 15 years in prison on child pornography charges after he sexually exploited a student over text messages, authorities said.

Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said Christopher O’Sullivan, 32, of Philadelphia, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, 10 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $5,200 restitution for crimes stemming from his sexual exploitation of a student via text message.

In October 2020, O’Sullivan pleaded guilty to one count of enticement of a minor, and one count of production of child pornography.

According to court documents, over the course of several weeks in June and July 2019, O’Sullivan, a middle school teacher at a Philadelphia charter school at the time, sent a series of sexually suggestive text messages to a minor, a student of his who was 12, in an effort to coerce the boy to engage in sexual activity and to send O’Sullivan sexually explicit photographs.

Eventually, the child gave in and sent O’Sullivan a photograph of his genitalia.

The child’s parents saw the sexually explicit text messages on the child’s phone and contacted authorities, and law enforcement later found the same photograph on O’Sullivan's phone.

"O’Sullivan held one of the most sacred positions of trust in our society, a molder of young minds – a teacher," Williams said. "Schools must be safe havens for children. For this defendant to abuse his position by targeting and manipulating a student for his own perverse gratification is almost unimaginable. As always, we stand ready with our federal partners to identify and prosecute individuals that perpetuate this type of child abuse."