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Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
National
Carly Behm

Burbank man gets 15 years for sharing child porn, sexually assaulting 13-year-old

His prison sentence will be followed by supervised release for ten years, authorities said. | File photo

A 51-year-old Burbank man was sentenced to federal prison after he shared child pornography and sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in his southwest suburban home.

Matthew Smith, 51, was sentenced last week to 15 years in prison after he plead guilty to federal child pornography charges, according to the U.S. State’s Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Illinois.

He shared sexually explicit images and videos of children under the alias “darkangle25” on Kik, a messaging app, prosecutors said.

Smith also sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl he lured into his home in 2015, prosecutors said. The two met over Kik, and Smith spent two years grooming her over texts and phone calls before luring her to his apartment.

The “girl’s disappearance caused her family immense suffering and prompted them to file a missing person report on her behalf,” prosecutors said.

After he serves his prison sentence, Smith will be under supervised release for another decade, the attorney’s office said.

“By downloading [child pornography], storing, and trading it with others, he continued the victimization of children who had been filmed or photographed engaging in acts no child should be part of,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Hernandez said in a statement.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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