Man sentenced 9 years in federal prison for sharing child pornography

A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for sharing videos and images of child pornography with members of a messaging application, which included an undercover agent.

Austin Burchert, 22, of Elk Grove Village, had more than 3,000 images and about 54 videos of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct on his cell phone, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Feb. 12, 2018, Burchert —using the screen name “so_raven_”— shared 13 of those images and one video file in a chat group on the Kik messenger app, prosecutors said.

There were 50 members in the group chat, including an undercover law enforcement agent, prosecutors said.

Burchert pled guilty last year to the federal charge of transportation of child pornography.

He was sentenced to nine years in prison Tuesday and ordered to pay $65,000 in restitution to the known victims depicted in the pornographic images and videos.