A Davidsonville man was sentenced Tuesday to 10.5 years in prison after an Anne Arundel County jury convicted him last month on seven counts of possession of child pornography, according to the county’s Office of the State’s Attorney.
Judge Sidney Butcher sentenced Christopher Willard Clendenin, 38, to 35 years with all but 10.5 years suspended, to be served in the Division of Correction. Upon release, Clendenin must complete five years of supervised probation, participate in the COMET sex-offender treatment program, and register as a Tier 1 sex offender for 15 years. He received credit for 97 days already served.
The jury found Clendenin guilty May 28 following a trial in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. Immediately after the verdict, Butcher revoked his bond and ordered him held at the Jennifer Road Detention Center pending sentencing.
State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said the crime causes lasting harm well beyond the images themselves. “The possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material further revictimizes our most vulnerable, and behind the images is a story of abuse and trauma,” Leitess said. Prosecutors said some of the material Clendenin possessed was identified, through international law enforcement partners including the Australian Federal Police and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, as depicting extremely young children — including a child under the age of 4 — subjected to sexual abuse. Leitess added that Clendenin “failed to take responsibility for his actions or acknowledge the harm that this type of crime causes.”
The investigation began after Reddit reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in February 2023 that a user had uploaded suspected child sexual abuse material to the platform. That tip reached Anne Arundel County police in April 2023, providing a suspect name and IP address that led investigators to Clendenin.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for Clendenin’s Reddit and Gmail accounts on May 8, 2023, approved by Judge Christine Celeste. After Google responded to the warrant, investigators found both still images and video depicting child sexual abuse material within Gmail folders linked to Clendenin’s account.
On Aug. 24, 2023, members of the Anne Arundel County Police Department’s Child Abuse Unit served a residential search warrant at Clendenin’s home. He answered the door and was briefly interviewed; when asked whether he recognized the Gmail account under investigation, he replied, “Yeah, that’s a couple emails back,” according to prosecutors.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant State’s Attorneys Anastasia T. Prigge and Sean Fox. The investigation was led by Detective Jonathan Bruce of the Anne Arundel County Police Department.
