A Salt Lake City man who filmed a 7-year-old child in sexually explicit videos will spend the next 25 years in federal prison.
On April 29, U.S. District Judge Jill N. Parrish sentenced Andrew Craig Petersen, 36, of Salt Lake City, to 300 months, or 25 years, in federal prison after he admitted using his cellphone to create sexually explicit photos and videos of a 7-year-old child. Prosecutors say Petersen uploaded the material to an online account that was flagged to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and referred to law enforcement.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah, Petersen pleaded guilty on Aug. 26, 2025, to production of child pornography and was sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release following imprisonment; mandatory restitution will be set at a later date. The office says the case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl R. Hollan and Assistant U.S. Attorney Carol A. Dain and investigated by the West Jordan Police Department.
How Investigators Uncovered The Material
Court records show the images and videos date to June 14, 2023, and were created while Petersen was on state probation for an earlier attempted sexual exploitation charge. Local reporting from KSL says Petersen admitted in his plea that some images were taken while the child slept and that the material was uploaded from an account linked to him, prompting a report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Prior Prosecutions And Probation
Records show Petersen was indicted in 2018 on as many as 35 felonies, including sexual exploitation of a minor, and in 2019 pleaded guilty in state court to a reduced count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, forgery, and violating a protective order. Local coverage at the time by FOX13 noted he served more than a year in jail, was given credit for that time, and was placed on four years of probation before the federal indictment.
Prosecutors' Statement And Sentence Terms
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak said, "Petersen is a repeat child sex offender who preyed on a seven-year-old; he has proven again that he cannot be trusted around children," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The press release also notes the prosecution was handled as part of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative targeting online child sexual exploitation.
What's Next For The Victim And The Community
Restitution to the victim will be set at a later hearing, and the case record shows the child was the daughter of a woman Petersen was dating, details reported by local outlets. The West Jordan Police Department investigated the uploads; anyone with information about related crimes is asked to contact the department or report tips to national hotlines, as local reporting has noted (West Jordan City).
Federal Penalties And Context
Production of child sexual abuse material is one of the most heavily punished federal offenses, carrying mandatory minimums and the possibility of decades-long prison terms, with higher ranges where defendants have prior sex-offense convictions, legal guides explain. That statutory framework is a major reason prosecutors sometimes shift cases into federal court, where resources and initiatives such as Project Safe Childhood can be brought to bear, as per Justia.
