DETROIT (WWJ) – A 51-year-old Dearborn man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to his second federal child porn offense.
Federal officials say Sean McClanahan distributed "serious and troubling" sex videos and photos of young children, and even a dog – many of which while he was on supervised release and just months after completing sex offender treatment.
McClanahan pleaded guilty to distributing more than 600 images and on Wednesday he was sentenced to 15 years behind bars, United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison announced.
Ison says "each time an image of an abused child is distributed or viewed online it revictimizes that child."
"We will protect these children and hold individuals accountable each and every time they prey on our most vulnerable citizens," she said.
Court records show McClanahan sent a link containing child porn files to an undercover federal officer on July 1, 2018. Officials say he admitted to distributing child porn on that day, and as part of his plea deal, later admitted to involvement with more than 600 images of child pornography and images of infants and toddlers.
In McClanahan's sentencing document, officials described one of the more troubling images he distributed – a roughly four-minute video that is a compilation of photos and video involving prepubescent girls being abused by men and a young girl performing a sex act on a dog.
McClanahan's offense is considered to be "highly aggravated" because it comes after a conviction for another child pornography offense, with some of it occurring while he was on supervised release just after he "successfully" completed sex offender treatment, officials said.
He completed the training in April 2018 and was caught distributing more explicit images to the undercover officer that July.
"The only thing that McClanahan learned from his prior conviction was to try harder not to get caught," officials said in a document.
The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Meghan Bean and Christopher Rawsthorne.
