A 40-year-old Ferndale man has been sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for attempting to cross the Canadian border to have sex with a 12-year-old girl.
Christopher David Johnston was arrested in May 2016 after he illegally crossed the border near Sumas, Washington, following a two-week period during which he communicated with an undercover agent posing as a 12-year-old child.
According to court records, Johnston posted an ad on Craigslist in the ‘casual encounters’ section, which led law enforcement to believe he was seeking sex with minors. An undercover agent with U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) responded to the ad posing as the 12-year-old girl.
Over the next two weeks, Johnston sent increasingly sexualized communications and asked for explicit pictures of the ‘girl’. On May 20, 2016, Johnston left his home and headed toward the Canadian border, intending to illegally cross the border and meet the ‘girl’ for sex.
Prosecutors noted that Johnston was willing to go to great lengths to reach the fictional 12-year-old, despite facing various state charges in Whatcom County that would have prevented him from legally crossing the border.
U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones imposed the 6.5-year prison sentence and a 10-year term of supervised release, recommending both sex offender treatment and drug treatment. Johnston is required to register as a sex offender following his release from prison.
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Key Facts
- State: Washington
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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