Bridgeview man gets 18 years for soliciting nude photos from a 14- and 5-year-old online

A Bridgeview man has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for soliciting a 14-year-old girl to send him sexually explicit images of herself and her younger sister, who was 5 years old at the time, among other child pornography-related crimes.

Brandon Hanahan, 26, pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges involving possessing child pornography and soliciting the material from the minors for acts authorities said began when he was 19.

Law enforcement officials said found more than 200 images of child pornography and several videos on Hanahan’s devices, some depicting children as young as 4.

Hanahan started messaging the 14-year-old on Instagram in June 2016, according to authorities.

According to sentencing documents, an investigation began after the older girl threatened to kill herself outside a 7-Eleven in California and then told first-responders about her conversations with Hanahan.

A search in June 2017 found devices that contained more than 200 images and videos of child pornography, authorities said, and Hanahan admitted what had gone on with the minors but wasn’t charged at the time.

The Department of Homeland Security took over the investigation in April 2018, and a month later, tipped that an account tied to Hanahan was posting child pornography on Instagram, authorities searched his home in Bridgeview and found Hanahan had continued to send and receive child pornography on the social media site Tumblr, bragging to one user that he’d had sex with a 13-year-old, according to sentencing documents.

Hanahan has spent nearly five years under home confinement while the case worked through the courts.

“Hanahan’s history and predatory characteristics show that he exploited children and doubled down on his commitment to his sexual predation when he got caught,” prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents.