Repeat child sex offender sentenced to 25 years in federal prison

SALT LAKE CITY — A repeat child sex offender has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for filming and photographing sexually explicit content of a child.

Andrew Craig Petersen, 36, of Salt Lake City, was initially indicted in 2022 for production of child sex abuse material, transportation of child sex abuse material, and violating requirements for registered sex offenders. He pleaded guilty in August to the production of child sexual abuse material in exchange for the dismissal of the other two charges.

Petersen will serve life on probation following his imprisonment and was ordered to pay restitution to the victim.

Petersen used his cellphone to film and photograph a 7-year-old girl in sexually explicit poses and circumstances, according to court documents. The victim was the child of a woman with whom he was in a relationship.

Petersen admitted in his plea statement that he created images and videos of the female child while she was fully nude. Some of the material was created while the child was sleeping on a bed and "for purposes of my own sexual arousal or gratification," he said in his plea.

He then uploaded the material to an online account he maintained, which was then reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, court documents state.

Petersen undertook these actions while he was on probation for a state conviction of attempted child sexual exploitation, the U.S. Attorney's Office of Utah said.

Petersen was charged in 2018 with 35 felonies, including sexual exploitation of a minor, forgery and violation of a protective order, according to court records. In 2019, Petersen was indicted on federal charges of receipt and possession of child sex abuse material, but those charges were dismissed "to defer to the pending state prosecution."

He pleaded guilty in 2019 in state court to a reduced count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, in addition to forgery and violating a protective order. He was given credit for the time he was in jail following his arrest, which was more than a year, and was placed on four years of probation.

In 2022, Petersen was charged in Utah's 3rd District Court with 10 counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a child, a first-degree felony, and 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, a second-degree felony. These charges were dismissed a month later, however, due to the federal indictment for which he was just sentenced.

"Petersen is a repeat child sex offender who preyed on a 7-year-old; he has proven again that he cannot be trusted around children," said first assistant U.S. attorney Melissa Holyoak of the District of Utah. "His 25-year sentence is appropriately severe and serves as a stern reminder that crimes against children will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

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